Team STIK (Strike)
by Aragon365
Summary: One born without the power to make a difference. Another gifted with an incredibly powerful dual semblance. One who wishes to live up to his elder brother. And a faunus whose anger makes him almost as brutal as the Grimm. At Beacon Academy, these four unlikely souls would meet, and forever change the face of Remnant. These are their exploits. This is the story of Team STIK.
1. A Dream Crushed

**A/N: Hello everyone who decided to give this a try (though I'm guessing it'll be a fairly small number of people). Welcome to Team STIK (Strike), a RWBY/Boku no Hero Academia Crossover Fanfic that's been stuck in my head for a while now. As you can clearly see by my practically empty story library *opens door to an incredibly dusty room* this is gonna be my time writing a story ever. So if there are any criticisms you may have or any mistakes I may have made please let me know. I'm always willing to learn. *growl emerges from within the depths of a room* Aw sh*t, it's the writer's block monster again. *Cocks assault rifle* Enjoy the story! *jumps into the room, rapid gunshots emerge from the doorway* DIE, AMALGAMATION OF ALL THAT IS EVIL! DIE! DIE! DIE!**

 **Edit (10/25/18): This is one of the chapters that required the least amount of work. I just changed Toshinori's last name back to Yagi and switched around a few things to make it overall flow better than it did before, and I added the preschool scene in. Also, I'm adding this in for good measure:**

 **Disclaimer: I do not own RWBY or My Hero Academia. They belong to Monty Oum, Kohei Horikoshi, and their respective publishing companies. Please support the official releases.**

 **I do not own the cover image**

Chapter 1: A Dream Crushed

Izuku Midoriya was a dreamer. He dreamed of great things, of fighting monsters and saving thousands. He dreamed of becoming a great hero to the world of Remnant. Just like his idol, Toshinori Yagi. Or, as most people had taken to calling him, All Might, one of the greatest huntsmen to ever live, maybe to ever exist, and considered the poster boy of the Big Four. He bore a shining smile, no matter the occasion, always there to help somebody, anybody, be it catching a random purse snatcher, slaying a Grimm, or even apprehending a famous criminal, he would always do his damnedest to make sure that he would help as much as could, wherever he could.

And so, Izuku declared, "I'm gonna be a great huntsman one day! Just like him! When I get my Semblance, I'll be unstoppable!"

And then, his dream came crashing down to earth with a single sentence, in a sterile room, and two pictures atop a

"I'm sorry to say this, but you'll likely never have an Aura, much less a Semblance."

He couldn't hear the rest. He didn't want to know why. But his mother did. His mother knew.

"I'm sorry, Doctor, but what exactly do you mean when you say that? Is there something wrong with my son?" Isuzu Midoriya asked the doctor, her concern for her son obvious within her quickened tone.

"Well, physically, there's nothing wrong with him at all. In fact, he's a perfectly healthy boy."

"Then why can't he have a Semblance? Or an Aura?"

The doctor sighed, as if he had gone through this before, not quite willing to say something that would likely never leave the boys mind. But, looking at the determination in the mother's eyes, with such a need for an answer as to _why_ her son couldn't be what he wanted to be, he could relate. And so, reluctantly, he gave in and told her.

"You're an eighth generation quirk user, am I correct?"

Despite the multiple theories and thesis' on the subject, there was no proof that Quirks and Semblances were one and the same. Quirks were essentially small things like minor pyrokinesis or a small strength boost and could be developed naturally, while Semblances and Aura were far more powerful and had to be unlocked by another who had an Aura. Quirks now belonged to eighty percent of the civilian population of Remnant. However...

"What does that have to do with this?"

"Well, there are two main reasons why. The first being this." The doctor said as he pointed at the x-rays he'd hung up earlier. "Most people nowadays only have one joint in their little toes. This is because the process of evolution has deemed it unnecessary to have. As you can see here, Izuku has two joints in both feet. So the chances of him even developing a quirk are slim at best.

"The second is something we're not really sure of ourselves. Not many people have it, so we don't have much to go off of. However, one thing these patients have in common," The doctor explained while hanging up another x-ray, this time of a plain orb of white with a small piece taken out of it. "is that they all seem to have this exact same portion of their soul missing. We call this phenomenon 'Fracture'. The people affected by this phenomenon cannot develop a Quirk or unlock an Aura. They can live normal lives, but they will never have what the majority does. I'm sorry, Ms. Midoriya. Truly I am. But what your son has is something we can't currently fix. We may never be able to."

 _(a few days later, Vale Preschool for the Gifted, Izuku's POV)_

"Hey, did you hear," some of the kids whispered as Izuku sat motionless on the floor, oblivious to their not so secret whispers. "He's something called 'Fractured.' He can't even get a quirk."

"Wow. So lame. Let's get away from him," another responded as they walked off to the rest of the classroom, his old friend Katsuki simply staring at him for a few moments before turning and joining the other students with a certain superior attitude lining his eyes and his smirk, his sharp ears twitching as though he could hear everything in the room, which he probably could.

And Izuku's gaze turned to the floor. Why him? Of all the people on Remnant who had to be stuck like this, why did it have to be him? Was there any reason? Any explanation? Anything at all?

But there wasn't. It was simple bad luck. Nothing more, nothing less.

However, if he was gonna let that keep him down forever, this story likely would've never happened.

Izuku decided that from then on, no matter what, he was gonna to keep pushing, and keep trying. He was going become a huntsman, no matter what anyone else said. No matter how long it took, no matter what kind of hell he had to go through, he would be what he wanted to be. No matter what happened, he would keep moving forward.

Oh, I should also probably mention this. This is the story of how Izuku Midoriya became the greatest huntsman in all of Remnant.

 **A/N: Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaand that's a wrap for the first chapter. Now, I know some of you may be confused about some of the things I presented. The first likely being the fact that Quirks and Semblances both exist. While this story does take place on the world of Remnant, I wanted to implement a few of the things from the Academia Universe to make it feel like it's still connected to Academia in a way other than the characters. While Quirks do exist, very few of them are actually on par with a Semblance, and as such are much more common.**

 **The second is probably the Fracture Phenomenon. Like the doc said, there isn't really much to say because there isn't that much information available, since it's only a one in ten thousand per year chance that someone will be affected by the phenomenon. And considering Remnants population, that's not very many people, so, barely any data to go off of. I will be exploring it more in the future, this is not a one-time thing.**

 **Third, who's gettin' with who. C'mon you're all thinking it to some degree.**

 **I have decided on only one pairing thus far, and it's Izuku's. And it isn't changing for anything. And before you assume, no, it's not Ruby. I might have something in the works for her too.**

 **But everyone else is pretty much undecided, and I'll likely need help deciding their pairings. I'll put up a poll for possible pairings (likely before or after the dance) and let you guys vote on the possibilities I put up.**

 **And fourth, how many Academia characters will be in this story. Well, the only characters that are confirmed to be in this story are the following: Shouto Todoroki, Tenya Ida, Katsuki Bakugou, All Might, Endeavor, and, of course, Izuku Midoriya. There may be more added later on, but until then, these are the only characters confirmed to be in the story.**

 **I'll see you guys in the next chapter! *shoots writer's block monster* Why won't this thing f *$!#% die!?**


	2. A Truth and A Revival

**A/N: Hello! Thank you for continuing to read this story despite it's very, very many flaws. It means the world to me, so thank you so very much for reading. Enjoy the new chapter! Now then... *cocks shotgun* Where were we? *monster growls in anticipation***

 **Edit (10/28/18): Added the disclaimer and fixed what grammar mistakes I could find. I also improved the writing as much I as I feasibly could (though there may still be some stuff to do), and I did include some more details to flesh things out and give the world some more believability.**

 **Disclaimer: I do not own RWBY or My Hero Academia. They belong to Monty Oum, Kohei Horikoshi, and their respective publishing companies. Please support the official releases.**

 **I do not own the cover image**

Chapter 2: A Truth and A Revival

"Alright, alright, settle down class." The teacher said as the class eased into their seats. Izuku, knowing exactly what that day was, shifted about in his seat nervously. He knew what people would say if he told them what he wanted to do with his life, but he'd still do it.

"Now, I'm sure you all know what today is." The teacher said, pulling out a bunch of identical looking papers. "Normally, I'd be passing out these college applications by now. But..." He paused before throwing them into the air, using his pyrokinesis semblance to incinerate every last page. "… you're all gonna try for the hunter academies, right?"

His response was a resounding "YEAH!" From the entire classroom, who immediately showed off their Quirks and Semblances without a care in the world, excitement trumping logic as the classroom slowly turned into a boiling pot for the former.

"Now, now class, settle down." The teacher said as he tried to regain control of the class. "Yes, you all have some very impressive Quirks and Semblances, but don't forget that you still have eleven months before the exams begin. So don't get cocky."

"Hey... teach..." A student with spiky blonde hair and wolf ears said with a condescending tone so thick you could see it. On his face was something like a cross between a snarl and a grin that showed his mouth filled with fangs. "Don't lump me in with all these other washups. I'm the real deal, but the best they can probably do is get licensed by some second-rate college, and that's if they're lucky."

"YOU GOT A DEATH WISH, BAKUGOU?!" Almost every student in the class yelled in sync with each other, their anger at his statement obvious within the malice their voices contained, to which Bakugou promptly responded with; "Let's go! I'll take you all on!" his eyes clearly giving away his eagerness for a fight.

"Well, your test results and overall grades have been rather exemplary for all the years you've attended this high school. Huh. Maybe you will get into Beacon."

The shock only lasted for a fraction of a second before whispers and tidbits flew about the classroom, all of them pertaining to the grand hunter academy, Beacon. If you wanted to be a hunter and become extremely successful, that was where to go. However, the initiation for the Hunter track was extremely difficult, and some of the students had even died to try and pass it, though that seldom happened at all.

"And that's why it's the only place on this continent worthy of me." He boasted before jumping on top of his desk, clearly not caring for the rules. He then continued his monologue. "I've already aced the academic pre-tests, not to mention that I'm the only one at this school who's got what it takes to pass the initiation. I'll end up even more popular than the Big Four themselves, and be the most powerful huntsman of all time! People from all over the entire world will know my name, and it all starts with Beacon Academy!" He finished with a full tooth smile, his fangs proudly showing his heritage as a dire wolf faunus, a rare species that was seldom seen anywhere.

"Oh yeah, isn't Midoriya trying to get into Beacon as well?" the teacher asked, Bakugou turning a rather cartoonish shade of white that had even managed to cover his clothes. How is this possible? No one knows.

Izuku flinched when his name was called out, before lifting his head ever so slightly from his desk to see the class' reaction. Silence encompassed the room for a full three seconds before literally everyone in the classroom with the exception of Bakugou and the teacher burst out in laughter, obviously not taking the boys dream seriously.

"Are you kidding me?"

"You don't even have a Quirk, which basically disqualifies you!"

Izuku stood up with an intimidated look on his freckled face, and shakily answered, "A-actually, that rule g-g-got revoked l-last year. I-I could be the first person to-"

He never got the chance to finish. Bakugou, deciding he'd heard enough, slammed his palm on Izuku's desk, charring the top with his semblance and splitting it in half due to the added kinetic force. Startled, Izuku fell backward onto his rear, looking up when Bakugou began to criticize him, his hand still smoking from the use of his quirk.

"Listen up, _Deku_ ," Izuku flinched at his insult of a nickname. "You're even worse than the rest of these goddamn rejects, ya Fractured wannabe. Do you really think they'd let you in when they could get me?!"

"N-no, wait! Y-y-you've got it all wrong! I'm not trying to compete with yo-" Izuku says until he's interrupted by hitting his head against the wall, which he backed into accidentally. "You've gotta believe me!" Izuku looks down, trying to escape the death glare that Bakugou was now giving him. "I-it's just that... this is what I've wanted to be for a long time now. I-I may not even have a Quirk... but that doesn't mean I can't try, right?"

Bakugou's rage was obvious, his smirk from earlier now replaced with a full tooth, and rather intimidating, snarl, and smoke was coming off of his palms like steam from a running train engine. **"LIKE HELL YOU'D BE ABLE TO HANG WITH THE BEST OF THE BEST! YOU'D DIE IN INITIATION!"**

Izuku looked down in shame as Bakugou continued to berate him.

"HELPLESS LITTLE IZUKU! THIS SCHOOL'S GOT A SHITTY REP AS IT IS, DO YOU REALLY WANNA EMBARRASS IT EVEN MORE BY FAILING THAT HARD?!"

 _(meanwhile, somewhere in downtown Vale, at 12:02 pm)_

"AIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII!"

"HEY! SOMEONE CATCH THAT THIEF!"

A man with a liquidation Semblance ran away with lien cards of varying colors inside of his body, chuckling to himself as he made his escape. "Yell all ya want to, sucker, but this Lien is mine now!"

"Hey, shouldn't at least one huntsman be here by now?"

"Yeah, and we're in Vale. I wonder where they all are."

"Maybe they're still busy from that scene earlier this morning."

A rather gangly man in a baggy shirt and pants heard these things as he exited a convenience store, two rather large bottles of cola in the bag he carried. Another up and comer villain, huh? Time to make sure their career was short lived. Hopefully, he wouldn't have to deal with Torchwick again too soon. The man was very elusive, he would give him that.

But on to the task at hand.

"Remember when we didn't have to deal with random people using Quirks and Semblances for crime all the damn time?"

"Yeah, there's just no stopping them these days."

 **"Yes, there is."** The once gangly man said to the pedestrians, now so tall and buff his clothes could barely contain his physique. They turned around and gasped when they recognized his face.

 **"Do you know why?"** He asked them, not expecting a response.

The liquidated crook looked behind him, and was nearly paralyzed with fear when he saw the man's face.

"Because I am here!" All Might proclaimed, a shining smile catching the midday sunlight as he stepped forth and rushed after him with a gust of wind left in his wake.

 _(a few hours later, Vale High School, Izuku's POV)_

School had just been released with a loud ring of the overhead bell, and the earlier incident from that morning had been all but forgotten by almost everybody, including the teacher. By now everyone was starting to head home, but Izuku was currently checking the news on his civilian issue scroll or CIS.

The fight that had minorly impeded him on his way to school had gained a lot of traction with the public, especially with the debut of a new hunter named Yu Takeyama, codenamed Mt. Lady by both the press and... herself? Okay, a little unconventional in the world of codenames, but a rather self-explanatory name nonetheless. Her semblance was Gigantification, which allowed her to change her own height at will. She'd been allegedly passing through Vale at the time of the incident, and decided to help out and simultaneously make her debut before she went back to her home city of Mistral. For some odd reason, he had a feeling that she and Kamui Woods weren't going to get along very well, considering their personalities and the fact that Kamui was by far one of the most popular hunters from Anima. Then again, there was always the Merry Men Mercenary Company to keep things in check, so that was a comfort, at least.

"I'd better take some notes so that I don't forget anything later," Izuku said to himself, taking out Huntsman Journal 13 from his backpack, only to have it snatched out of his hand by none other than Bakugou with his nose upturned and his ears partially flattened, quite literally looking down on his old childhood friend.

"I don't know what the hell you think you're doing, Deku, but we aren't done talkin' yet." He said with barely masked malice in his gaze, his grip on Izuku's journal loose and unprotected. His cronies came in behind him, Izuku had never really bothered to remember their names, and asked Bakugou, "Whatcha got there, Katsuki? His diary?"

Bakugou showed them both the cover of the journal, not really caring what they thought of it. It didn't take long for them to start laughing at Izuku's expense, biting away at the little pride he still had left. Despite that, he still tried to play it off as just a joke. "H-ha ha, very f-funny guys." He turned to Bakugou and asked, "C-could you please give it back no-"

Bakugou blew the journal up and tossed it out the window before Izuku could even get another world in. Adding insult to metaphorical injury, Bakugou belittled him even more. "Most great huntsmen show potential when they're very young. People look at them and just know that they're destined for something great. When I'm the only student to graduate from this shitshow of a high school to Beacon Academy, they'll be talkin' about _me_ like that. They'll know that I'm the next big thing. That's not ego talking, I'm just that good."

He then proceeded to place his hand on Izuku's shoulder and minorly activate his semblance, causing his hand to smoke. "Here's a little advice from me, ya damn nerd." He bared his fangs in a cruel smile. "Don't even think about applying, or there'll be consequences."

And so Izuku stood stock still as he felt his limbs vibrate in utter terror. His voice caught in his throat, and though he tried his best to retort to Bakugo's comment, he could hardly even get a sound out.

So the ashen blonde direwolf and his cronies left him to stew in his own cowardice. Why he did deserve so much crap for something he couldn't control? Why him? Why always him?

"You know, if you really wanna be huntsman that badly, there actually might be another way." Bakugou began, Izuku not fully expecting what came next.

"Just pray that you'll have a full soul in the next life and take a swan dive off the roof!"

At that point, Izuku had had enough anger in his stomach to punch at least twenty sandbags to shreds. Determined to respond to Bakugou with all his anger, he whipped his head around and-

 **"Somethin' wrong?"** He asked Izuku, activating his semblance and allowing a few cracks go off before they were followed by a low bang, further intimidating his green haired victim.

And so Izuku's anger was then buried under the fear of having Katsuki blowing him to shreds. Again.

 _(five minutes later)_

Now downstairs, Izuku mentally scolded Bakugou for what he'd said to him, something he could never actually do. _You can't just tell someone to kill themselves. What if I'd decided to jump? What then?_

He was taken from those thoughts when he saw his journal in the artificial pond by the building. Ironically enough, this was just under his homeroom, where he'd been when Bakugou nearly blew the same journal to bits. By tossing it down here, he'd unintentionally saved what was left of Izuku's notes. Which, as if the world was just having a good hard laugh at the situation, was currently being used as fish food. Stupid. He should've known better than to take it out in the middle of class, but he just couldn't help himself from indulging age-old habits.

"That's enough, give it back." He said, scattering the fish as he took his journal out of the water. It was just barely salvageable, his notes hardly legible. It wouldn't be used as a journal for a long time, if ever again. "Damn it all."

Walking home on the same, unnotable path that he'd always taken, he recalled the day he found out about his incomplete soul. He watched so many videos of huntsmen and huntresses fighting or doing heroic acts, just to drown out the pain of being a nobody. He'd watched All Might's debut more than any of them, just to feel something other than... worthlessness. His mother had apologized so many times that day, and the day after, and the day after that...

But that wasn't what he wanted to hear. What he _needed_ to hear.

In front of the same underside of the same bridge on the usual route he took home, he looked down at his shoes, and remembered his decision. No matter what anyone else said or did, he would hold his head high and keep moving forward. And to always keep on smiling, just like All Might.

He stomped loudly through the tunnel under the bridge, a laugh that sounded eerily similar to All Might's emerging from his mouth as he walked by. Sure, it had been a bit of a bad day, but it wasn't over yet! Maybe he could-

The sound of moving liquid drew his attention behind him, and as he turned around, a man made of dark green fluid said in a spotty voice; "You'll make a great skin suit to hide in, kid." He tackled Izuku to the ground before he could escape, making him drop his journal in the process.

Izuku then felt the liquid man try to get inside of him, prying open his mouth as it started to clog up his airway. "Relax kid. This'll be easier for the both of us if you don't fight back."

 _Can't breathe._ He thought before trying to grab at the thing to try and find some sort of handhold to get this stuff out of his mouth and keep himself alive, give himself enough room to breathe, and consistently gripping only the same strange sludge in his attempts.

"Don't even bother. My body's made of fluid." The man pushed his body further down Izuku's throat, this time muffling what screams there were before they could emerge. "Thanks for the help. You're a real hero to me."

 _Body... getting... weak... am I... dying?_ Izuku thought as he looked at the journal he'd dropped earlier. It was open, on the page that he'd started designing his huntsman outfit. And that little spark, that dream he'd long coveted, that small hope that had burned in the back of his mind ever since the day he'd learned he was Fractured, gave him enough willpower to keep him going for just a few more measly seconds. _No... not yet... somebody... help..._

And those measly seconds weren't given in vain. Almost as soon as he had finished that thought, a manhole cover came flying off, first startling the liquified man and then making him freeze when he heard his pursuers voice.

 **"Fear not, citizen, for you are safe,"** he said to Izuku, his signature, undeterred smile spread wide across his face. **"Now that I am here!"**

Desperate to not be caught, the man took his form out of Izuku almost immediately whipped a now weaponized arm towards All Might, an attempted defense that was made futile by two loud, booming words.

 **"VALE SMASH!"** the smiling giant yelled as he punched at the liquified man, the kinetic force causing the wind to become so fast that it caused his body to disperse itself with a satisfying pop, and releasing Izuku from the villain's grasp, now unconscious as he opened his eyes ever so slightly.

 _All... Might?_

And then he fell to the ground, unconscious.

 _(a few minutes later)_

 **"Hey... wake up... hey!"** He said as he gently tapped Izuku on the cheek, causing the green haired boy to scrunch up his face before his eyes fluttered open. **"Ah! Thought we lost you there!"**

It took him a full second to realize just who was standing over him, and his face went somewhere between terrified and excited. The former took over his motor functions as he backed away from All Might at a rapid pace as a surprised yell came from him. All Might then stood up, saying, **"Well, if you can still move around alright, there shouldn't be any lasting damage. Sorry about what happened back there! I didn't mean for any civilians to get caught up in this."**

 **"That aside, you were a big help! Thank you! I've captured this crook,"** He said as he showed Izuku two large bottles full of what appeared to be the liquidated man's unconscious body.

 _Holy crap, it's really All Might! Here! In the flesh! He looks so much cooler in person!_

"Wait, I-I gotta get an autograph!" He said as he searched his person for a pen, before noticing his journal next to him open with the words **ALL MIGHT** spread across two blank pages with a little doodle of his face in the top left corner. _HE ALREADY GAVE IT!_

"Thank you so much! This will a family heirloom for generations to come!" Izuku said as he bowed to All Might several dozen times, the latter responding with a simple, and rather nonchalant, thumbs up.

 **"Welp, I'd better get this guy to the police! See you around!"**

"W-wait, you're leaving?"

 **"Yes! Hunter's work requires constant movement from one place to another so that they can help as many people as they can!"** the smiling giant responded as he stretched his legs with a few pre-jump squats.

 _W-wait, he can't go yet! I still have so much to ask him!_

As if acting on pure instinct, he grabbed onto All Might's leg as he took off, the wind the kicked up combined with the resulting g-forces barely allowing him to hold on at all.

 **"What the- hey, let go of me!"**

"But if I do, I wouldn't survive the fall!"

 **"Ah! Fair point!"**

Then they landed on the roof of a nearby building, after which Izuku proceeded to practically collapse onto the roof and squeeze out, "My life just flashed before my eyes."

 **"Bang on the door for a while, someone will let you in eventually."** He said as he gestured to the roofs entrance and began walking off to the balcony of the roof. **"See you on the flipside!"**

"Wait! C-c-can I at least ask one question?"

All Might stopped for a second before turning around and responding, **"Alright, but just one. I'm in a bit of a hurry."**

Izuku already knew what he was going to ask. It was one simple, arbitrary question that had plagued his thoughts since he was little. The answer meant everything to him. Maybe... maybe he had a chance.

 _Here goes..._

"Could I still become a Huntsman even though I'm a Fractured?"

Silence engulfed them as All Might tried to look for an answer. Then it happened. All Might's body began to steam, as he bent over in what appeared to be pain. His form was beginning to slip. His time limit was up.

But Izuku didn't notice this, instead going on with his speech, "I've wanted to be one ever since I was little. But I'm... I'm just a kid. I don't have an Aura or even a Quirk. I know that it'll be really tough to become one without any actual powers. But maybe... maybe, I could still be a hunter without them. And save someone in need with a smile on my face.

"Just like you-" Izuku finished as he turned his head upwards with a smile on his lips, suddenly finding that he could not speak due to the shock of seeing a rather gangly man with the same hairstyle and clothes as All Might, though the two signature spikes looked as though they had been deflated and his eyes were sunken and his cheeks hollow.

"W-w-w-w-wait? W-what happened? Who're you? Y-y-you don't look like All Might."

"I can assure you, I am All Mi-" he began before he coughed up a bit of blood, causing Izuku to freak out even more.

Once Izuku calmed down a bit, Toshinori took it upon himself to give a dumbed down explanation of his semblance. "Ya know those guys at the beach who usually suck in their guts to look buff?" Izuku nodded wordlessly. "It kinda works like that."

 _This can't be real!_

"But how is this possible? All Might is a giant of a man who always saves people with a fearless smile."

"… kid, trust me when I say that there's plenty of fear behind that smile," Toshinori said as he sat down, obviously exhausted from maintaining his form for so long. "I'm gonna be counting on you to keep quiet about this. Don't tell anyone, not even your family."

He lifted his baggy shirt, showing Izuku his scar, the one that had left him in such a shape to begin with. It was a sickly mix of dark red and purple, lined with stitches with a large indent to the left of his torso. "I know, it's pretty disgusting. Got this in a fight about five years back. My respiratory system barely survived, and I lost my whole stomach. I've lost count of how many surgeries I went through, and I can't get it fixed. I've only got about three or four hours a day to do hunter's work. This is what I look like normally."

"W-w-wait, f-five years ago? Then was it the fight with that White Fang Lieutenant? Serpent Saw?"

"Huh. You're well informed. But no, it wasn't him. He got in a few good hits, but that wasn't nearly enough to take me down. This one... most of Remnant doesn't know about this particular fight, and I made sure of it. And it needs to stay that way.

"I'm supposed to be the guy that's always smiling. The poster boy of the Big Four. They gotta believe that I'm not afraid of anything. I guess... I smile just to hide the fear I keep bottled up inside of me. A brave face to keep the public's negativity at a low level. This job is extremely dangerous." He said, looking at Izuku with a gaze that seemed to pierce his very soul. "We're always having to risk our lives for others every day. And some things just can't be beaten without a Semblance. So no, I don't think you can become a huntsman as a Fractured."

Izuku's entire world had just shattered. His idol, the person he'd been looking up to his entire life, the one who he thought might've given him some form of support, was saying that he couldn't be a huntsman. And he couldn't really blame him. He wasn't anyone special. Just some nobody. He stared down at the ground in shame, responding to the gangly man's words with a shaking tone, "I-I see."

Toshinori then got up from the guardrail and headed towards the roof entrance, saying as he passed the green haired boy, "If you still want to help people, there are plenty of other ways to do it. You could become a police officer. They get a lot of crap from the press and the public because huntsmen capture most of the big-name criminals, but it's a fine profession."

He opened the door to the roof and finished his speech to Izuku. "It's okay to have a dream young man. Just... make sure your dreams are attainable. Be realistic."

And the door to the roof shut with a metallic clang of metal against metal, leaving Izuku alone to stew in his own sorrowful, deprecating thoughts.

 _(one minute later)_

It had been only a short minute since Toshinori had left, and already there was smoke rising in the distance. Habit and instinct kicked in as he rushed towards the door, eager to see which huntsmen would show up. But then Toshinori's words rang through his head, stopping him in his tracks. His head now hung low, Izuku slowly got off the roof, stewing in self-doubt.

Walking home yet again, Izuku looked through his notes, taking a bit of time to go over each of them. He stopped for a little longer on All Might's signature, the man's words ringing through his thoughts once again before he shut the journal and looked at the cover, the edges of it still black from Bakugou's Semblance.

 _Even All Might said the same thing as all the others. You can't be a huntsman without an Aura,_ he thought as his eyes began to tear up. _Don't cry, damn it. Deep down, I knew this was the answer. I've just been avoiding the reality of the situation, trying to prove myself wrong._

An explosion shook him from his thoughts, as he found himself at the site of the smokestack he'd seen earlier. _It's still going?_ he thought as he observed the situation in front of him. _Why am I even here? Did I just walk this way out of habit?_ He mused to himself as he approached the gathered crowd, only to glimpse in and see what was happening.

It was the liquefied man from earlier, the one that had tried to use his body as a skin suit. But how was he here? All Might had already captured him, right?

Then he remembered back to when he grabbed onto All Might's leg, just above where he was keeping the bottles. If he'd dropped them, then...

 _It's my fault._

"Why aren't the other hunters doing anything?"

"Well, none of them are used to dealing with this type of Semblance, plus the guy has a kid hostage. Things aren't lookin' very good for them."

 _Wait someone's in there?! How are they still alive?! I thought I'd die after only a few seconds!_

"Hey, isn't that the guy All Might caught earlier?"

"Wait, seriously?! This guy got away from _the_ All Might?!"

"Well, can't someone call him or something?"

"Seriously, where the hell is he?"

 _I'm at fault. He wasted what was left of his energy on me. He can't power up yet, and none of the hunters here can stop this guy._

 _It's my fault. I'm so sorry._

 _Someone's gotta help eventually. Backup's gonna come soon._

And then he saw the one the crook had decided to take hostage. It was the person who'd tormented him the most, his "childhood friend," Katsuki Bakugou. And it was the sight of this same person, who'd berated him and chastised him more than anyone else, that drove him to action.

Before he could even register what he was doing, Izuku broke through the crowd and ran towards the two, despite having no power whatsoever. He wasn't going to save his tormentor. Nor was he rushing to save his bully. No, he was trying to help someone whom he knew needed help.

He ran towards the danger, in spite of the hunter's protests, in spite of the fire biting at his heels, and in spite of his own self-doubt, he ran. He ran to save someone who needed to be saved.

 _What do I do now?_ He asked himself. Then it dawned on him. Make an opening. He had something to throw, so throw it!

Izuku took his bag off of his back, his pencils poking the still solid eyes of the crook, temporarily blinding him and loosening his grip on Bakugou significantly, giving him the opportunity to yank Bakugou out.

"Deku?" Bakugou asked, barely conscious. "What the hell are you doing here?"

"I don't know. But..." Izuku answered, because it was true. He didn't know why he'd done it. His body just moved before he could think. But...

"Katsuki... I couldn't just stand by and let you die!"

The crook, angry beyond all belief, whipped his arm at the two, fully prepared to kill them. Izuku braced himself in front of Bakugou, and waited for the pain to come.

But it didn't.

 **"I really am pathetic."**

Izuku turned to see All Might standing in front of him, taking the full brunt of the blow meant for him and Bakugou, steam rising off of his skin as he pushed the villain's arm further back.

 **"I told you the traits that make a huntsman. But I see now that I wasn't living up to my own ideals!"** All Might said as he cocked his fist back, blood suddenly spurting from his mouth as he continued, **"We're always ready to risk our own lives! That's the test of a true huntsman!"**

"Damn you, All Might!" The crook yelled as he prepared another desperate attack. But before he even could...

 **"BEACON SMASH!"**

The blow was so mighty that the villain simply couldn't hold his form together, dispersing throughout the area as the wind whipped and thrashed about, creating spire of wind so large that it rivaled that of the CCT tower in height. And just as quickly as it had come, it disappeared, with All Might standing in the middle of the ruined street, his fist raised high as Izuku and Bakugo lay on the ground, safe, but shaken.

The skies began to darken with clouds. And then it began to rain. All Might's punch had been strong enough to change the weather. How could someone have _that_ much power? No one really knew.

After the incident, the hunters and the police collected the liquid left by the crook, and took him into custody. Izuku got chewed out by a few of the hunters, while Bakugou just sat there, not even paying any attention to the praise he was being given. The only thing on his face was an ears down, fangs bared scowl, directed at Izuku.

 _(thirty minutes later, elsewhere in Vale)_

Izuku was now far away from the scene. He'd tried to apologize to All Might, but the man got swarmed by the press, and he didn't want to draw any more attention to himself. He probably wouldn't get very far in that conversation, anyhow.

"DEKU!" Izuku heard a very familiar voice yell to him. He turned to see Bakugou running after him. Stopping about thirty feet from him and panting for a good few seconds before he said to Izuku, "Listen... I don't owe you squat! Got that?! I would've been fine on my own! Don't ever try to help me again!"

He then turned around and stormed off, leaving Izuku rather confused. _What was that?_

Izuku sighed, somehow finding that Bakugou wasn't entirely wrong. He hadn't done a whole lot, in the grand scheme of things. He'd nearly died, and All Might had to save him again. It was a hollow victory for him.

 _But... at least I tried._

He turned around and continued walking, ready to finally give up on his dreams-

 **"I am here!"**

Startled by his sudden appearance, Izuku jumped back in surprise, only to relax when he saw a familiar face. "A-a-all Might? W-wait, what're you doing here? A-and how did you g-get rid of the press?"

 **"Ha ha ha! If you can't even shake the press, you'll never be able to outrun a Grimm! Of course, I've rarely had to do that-"** and then he lost his grip his form once more, leaving him as Toshinori once again, and he coughed up some blood to boot.

Once he managed wiped away most of the blood that he'd coughed up, he elaborated. "Young man, I came here to thank you. And to discuss the question you posed to me earlier. If you hadn't done what you had done back there, I likely would've just been a bystander in the midst of the crowd. So, thank you."

"N-n-no, don't thank me. I-I was the reason that guy was there to begin with. I got in the way and I wasted your time limit. I'm sorry."

"I'm not done yet." He said, surprising the boy. What else could he possibly have to say? "You said you were a Fractured. Well in spite of that, while the rest of us stood by in shock, I saw you, a powerless boy, try to save a life, and it spurred me to action."

Shocked, Izuku stared wide-eyed as Toshinori continued his speech. "There are stories about every huntsman and huntress, about how they became so great. But most have one thing in common. They moved before they could even think, almost as if it were instinctual."

As Toshinori continued his speech, Izuku began to tear up, and then he began to cry. Not because he was sad, but because he was happy. So, incredibly happy.

"And today, that's what you did. Young man, you too can become a huntsman."

That was when Izuku realized that all dreams _were_ attainable, that they _could_ become reality. But his shock didn't stop there.

"I hereby deem you worthy of my Semblance. My power is yours to command."

 **A/N: Now, to answer any possible questions the you may have. First off, making Katsuki a Dire Wolf Faunus. While I was tempted to just leave him as is, I thought it would be interesting to explore his brutal reputation in a more literal way, because dire wolves... weren't exactly known for their patience. Or their calm. Moreso for their brutality than anything else.**

 **The second is likely renaming All Mights attacks. First off, they're on Remnant, a place where I highly doubt they've ever heard of the United States of America. Second off, the new naming system will be an... interesting experiment, to say the least.**

 **Third, the slight changes to the canon of the Academia events. Let's be entirely honest, just about anything could've happened in those instances, and those were some of the things I thought could've happened.**

 **Until next time, Sayonara!**


	3. Ten Months of Hell

**A/N: Not much to really say in this note, other than that this will be the last chapter before we get to the RWBY stuff. And thank you all so much! Over 300 views in less than a week?! I never thought I'd be so lucky! Enjoy the chapter!**

 **Edit (10/30/18): This chapter had always been pretty good, but I did the best I could to improve upon it. Hope I did a good job!**

 **Disclaimer: I do not own RWBY or My Hero Academia. They belong to Monty Oum, Kohei Horikoshi, and their respective publishing companies. Please support the official releases.**

 **I do not own the cover image**

Chapter 3: Ten Months of Hell

"Wait, what do you mean by that? Command what-"

"Ha ha ha ha ha!" Toshinori laughed, his voice just the tiniest bit hoarse. "Don't worry I won't force this on ya."

He walked forwards, saying, "Listen well young man! This is your choice! Do you wanna accept my power or not?!" before coughing up even more blood.

 _Wait... what's he talking about? Accept his power?_

Toshinori wiped the blood from his mouth as he continued, "There are a few things you should know about this Semblance before you accept. People have always guessed that it's Super Strength or an Invulnerability. When most people ask, I usually change the subject before they can think much of it. That's cause they need to think that their poster boy is a naturally powerful huntsman, just like most other people could be.

"But that's just it. I'm not. I can't and I never will be. I wasn't born with the power I now wield. It's something that was passed on to me by someone else."

The shock was instantaneous. Izuku couldn't speak for a full three seconds before managing to barely say, "Given to you... holy... no freaking way..."

"Yes way, and you're next, should you choose to accept it."

"W-w-whoa whoa whoa wait, this is a lot to process. It is true that no one's been able to figure out your Semblance, and there have been debates and theories going on for literal years about what it could be. But, well, the idea of passing on a Semblance or not inheriting it through genetics doesn't make a lot ofsenseI'veneverheardanythinglikethatbeforeandSemblancesareuniqetoeveronewho'sgotoneImeannoone'severbeenabletojustgivetheirpowertosomeoneelsethat'sjustplaincrazyifit'struethismaycausethemtorethinkeverythingtheyknowaboutheirpowerstobeginwithenitretheoriesmayhavetobestartedoverfromscra-"

"STOP NERDIN' OUT!"

Izuku, now aware that he was mumbling and going theory crazy again, immediately shut his mouth.

"You'll have to adjust your reality and accept this as the truth. I can transfer my power to another of my choosing. And that's only _one_ of the unique things about my Semblance. Its true name is One for All. One inheritor improves it, and allows their own strength to stockpile within it. And when they are done, they pass it on to the next. It grows stronger with each wielder as it is given over time. It's this power, nurtured and cultivated by seven others before me, that I am able to do what I do. And the truth behind my strength. I am the eighth inheritor, and you, young man, should you choose to accept my offer, will be the ninth."

"But... why me though? What if I can't handle it?"

"Because you have the right mindset for a huntsman. Despite being powerless, you tried to save that boy. You may not have the powers yet, but you damn well acted like a huntsman should've."

He'd encouraged Izuku so much, and even shared the secret behind his own power. How could he say anything but yes?

Izuku stood up, the fire in his eyes now relit, as he looked Toshinori in the eyes and said, "I accept!"

Toshinori smirked. "No hesitance at all. Just how I thought you would answer."

However, being mentally prepared for something and physically able to handle it were two different things entirely. As Izuku would soon find out, receiving a Semblance as powerful as One for All was much easier said than done.

 _(Vale Municipal Beach Park, early morning, two days later, Izuku's POV)_

Izuku pulled with all his might as he tried to drag the fridge across the sand, making no headway whatsoever in his attempts, the sand beneath his feet not exactly helping to shift the weight on his arms. He then fell to the ground with a loud thump, already exhausted from his attempts at moving the fridge from its spot on the ground.

 **"It's pretty comfy on this thing! How're you doing down there?"**

And what made it worse was the All Might had been sitting on the fridge the entire time, which made moving the fridge that much harder. **"People move these every day, ya know. And most of them don't have strength Quirks."**

Managing to push himself off of the ground and sitting himself upright, the green haired boy responded, "Well yeah, but I'm trying to drag an extra six hundred pounds with you on top of it."

 **"Actually, I lost weight, so I'm at five sixty these days! In this form, anyway."**

Izuku sighed as he rubbed his shoulders free of the tension they built up, then asking All Might, "Why do you have me dragging trash anyway?"

 **"HAHAHA! Take a look at yourself! You aren't ready for my power."**

Izuku's face became cartoonishly distraught, as he squealed, "I thought you said I was worthy!"

All Might got off of the fridge and walked over to Izuku, saying **"I'm talking about your body, not your mentality. My semblance is a lot to handle! The combined abilities of every inheritor makes a hurricane of kinetic force! If unprepared, your body won't be able to receive it. Your limbs would quite literally shoot out of their sockets if you even tried!"**

"SERIOUSLY?!"

Izuku then shook his head to rid himself of those morbid thoughts. "So, this trash hauling is some kind of hardcore workout... and you're my... coach." Izuku finally realized as All Might flashed him a thumbs up in confirmation, followed up a **"Correct!"** for emphasis.

 **"But there's another reason too!"** All Might explained as he walked back towards the fridge. **"I did a little research, and it turns out this side of the beach used to be beautiful, but it's been in total disarray for the last few years."**

Izuku stood up fully. He knew about this. Because of most tide patterns and wind conditions in Vale, some people would take advantage of the conditions to illegally dump trash. And no one had really taken the time to actually try to clean it. Then again, it was a very, very large mess, so he didn't really blame people since it was a big commitment to undertake.

 **"Most kids these days that wish to become hunters are all about slaying Grimm or catching the next big bad guy,"** All Might continued as he stepped behind the fridge and put a hand on top of it, and began to crush the fridge with barely any effort at all. **"Things were very different before the Hunters Age and Quirks and Semblances became commonplace! Helping a community function better was what mattered, even if it could get pretty boring at times."**

As All Might finished his sentence, he finished crushing the fridge, blowing away the trash behind him, saying to Midoriya, **"Clear the trash from this entire section of the beach. That's your first step to becoming a huntsman."**

Izuku turned around and saw just how much trash had been piling up over the years, a literal mountain of forgotten junk and old crap. And... he had to...

"All of it?! But there's so much! "

 **"Midoriya, how old are you?"**

Izuku turned to answer his question, "I'm sixteen. I'll turn seventeen in a couple of months."

 **"Then you're gonna try for Beacon, am I right?"**

"Well, yeah. You graduated from there, so it's gotta be the best school out of all of them, right? I know it's a long shot, but I'm gonna shoot for the moon. Even though it is shattered."

 **"You've got a lot of spirit, Midoriya! However, being a huntsman isn't doable without an Aura, at least. It's harsh, but that's the reality of it. And Beacon's initiation is by far the hardest out of all the academies. Which means..."**

"That we've gotta get my body ready for your semblance quick! Beacons initiation is in eleven months, and everyone else probably already has a ton of training under their belts."

All Might them pulled out a few papers, and continued, **"I've got you covered there, kid! This is my Aim to Pass Dream Plan. It's been specifically written with your body type in mind, so if you follow this to the letter, you'll clean up the beach a month ahead of time. We should be able to build you a weapon and work out the specifics of my Semblance by the time initiation rolls around."**

"Even my sleep is scheduled," Izuku mumbled as he looked over the plan All Might had given him, before realizing something. "Why would I need a weapon though? Shouldn't your Semblance be enough?"

 **"That's not the point, Midoriya. Every huntsman has, at some point or another, used a weapon. And you wouldn't be able to use One for All to its full extent right away. Remember, while this Semblance is very powerful, it is also very dangerous, particularly to the user in the early stages. That's why I suggest that you only use it fully as a last resort until you're able to handle it."**

"I understand. Hey, All Might?"

 **"Yes?"**

"Did you ever use a weapon?"

 **"Why of course! A pair of the most durable gauntlets you'd ever see!"**

"Why don't you use them nowadays?"

All Might's smile seemed to waver a bit, and though he was silent for only a few moments, the wait seemed like hours. And when he finally did speak up, his tone was remarkably serious, as though he was treading into old memories he didn't want to visit. But still, he answered, **"The last time I'd ever used those gauntlets was during the fight that gave me a time limit. They were destroyed during the battle, and I haven't used another weapon since then.**

 **"Changing the subject... if I'm going to be entirely honest, this'll be extremely hard. Are you sure you're still up to it?"**

Izuku looked back down at the papers held between his hands. "Well yeah. I'll have to work way harder than anyone else to get in, but what other choice do I have?"

And then, ten months of hell began. Between all the running, sit ups, push ups, and the various pieces of trash he had to move, Izuku thought he was going to collapse more than once. And he almost did collapse a few times. But...

 _I know I can do better. I know I can get stronger than this!_

 _(seven months later, somewhere in Vale, Izuku's POV)_

Izuku and Toshinori, now in his deflated form, were running through a small park on the western side of Vale, the former with a slightly rusted safe over his shoulder while the latter zoomed by on a mall scooter, the autumn leaves crunching beneath their feet as they continued moving forward.

And then, the exhaustion started to catch up with Izuku. And he fell to the ground with an echoing thud, the safe clattering ahead before stopping about ten feet away. Toshinori stopped his scooter and turned to find his protégé on the ground exhausted. "Hey, what the hell, kid. After all that work, you're just gonna give up? What happened to you?"

It didn't take long for Izuku to try and get up again, though that proved futile. So instead, he reached his hand forward and began to crawl. Not yet. He wasn't done yet!

"... you're overworked, aren't you?"

And still, Izuku tried to crawl.

"I made that plan with your body type in mind. The resting periods were so that your muscles could properly repair themselves, but this... don't you want to go to Beacon? You can't do that if you're dead on arrival!"

"I don't just want to go to Beacon."

"Huh?"

"I don't just want to go to the best school. I want to excel there too! I'll do whatever it takes to get there. I want to be able to give people hope with my smile. Because I..." Izuku lifted his head from the leaf-littered ground with tears lining the corners of his eyes, "I want to be like you!"

And this struck a true chord with Toshinori. How long had he often been held up in such high regard by this boy? Of course he would try to be like him. Okay, it would take some major number crunching, but he could do it.

 **"Ha ha ha!"** All Might said as his form suddenly filled out, picking up the worn body of his apprentice as he continued, **"You've still got that spark, Midoriya! That's what I like about you! Not to worry, this old man will have you back on track in no time at all!"**

"But... you're not an old man... All Might... you're like... in your late thirties..."

 _(three months later, Vale Municipal Beach Park, 6:15 am)_

Toshinori got out of his truck and began to walk towards where he and Izuku had been training almost every day for the past ten months. Izuku followed the plan, and it was working very much in his favor. Would it be enough? Toshinori would know that soon.

Then, he heard Izuku yelling his lungs hoarse on top of a gigantic pile of trash, not seeming to care if anyone heard him. He was done! He'd achieved the first step! He was ready!

"Holy crap, kid," Toshinori said as he scanned the coastline, and found it completely clear of any garbage. "He even went outside of the boundaries I'd set up for him. There's not a single speck of trash left on the beach!

"You've blown my expectations out of the water! And right before we needed to stop, too.

"Oh... my... **goodness!"** All Might transformed as he finished his shocked statement. And Izuku, overly exhausted from clearing the beach, fell forwards, only to be caught by his mentor in a flash of movement at the bottom of the pile.

"Hey... All Might... I did it... am I ready now?"

 **"Yes, you are! You've done an excellent job, Midoriya! I'm proud of you!"** All Might congratulated him before setting him down on the cold sand. **"I've gotta say, I'm very impressed. I knew you could do it, but this is beyond my expectations!"**

All Might then took out his phone and selected a picture before showing it to a hunched over Izuku. **"Look at this. It's you from ten months ago. And look at how far you've come! It may be a long while before you can use One for All to it's fullest extent, but it's starting to look like it's possible!"**

"Really? You've given so much time and energy to help me... how did I ever get this lucky?"

All Might placed a hand on Izuku's shoulder, extending the other to the pile of garbage behind him. **"It was your hard work that moved this trash off the beach, not mine. And now, to reward you for your efforts, Izuku Midoriya.**

 **"Close your eyes."** Izuku did as he was asked. **"For it is in passing that we achieve immortality. Through this, I bestow upon you the prowess and wisdom of wielders past. Infinite in potential and unbound by limitation, I release your soul, and by my oath, grant the e strength."**

Izuku opened his eyes as All Might took his hand off of his shoulder to see a bright emerald glow surrounding his body. Was this... Aura?

 **"Someone once told me that the differences between being lucky and deserving are that one is an accident and the other is an earned reward. Never confuse the two. You've earned this gift with your own two hands."**

And so, the ten months of hell Izuku had just gone through had received its payoff. Here he was, once a powerless Fractured, and now, the inheritor to one of the most powerful Semblances in existence. And he'd earned it.

Deflating back to his normal form, but still smiling, Toshinori beckoned Izuku to follow him, saying, "I'll drive you home. Get plenty of rest, you've earned it. And tomorrow...

"We'll see about getting you a weapon."

 _(the next day, noon, downtown Vale)_

Toshinori and Izuku stood outside a rather homely looking workshop in downtown Vale. No one seemed to have much interest in it, so the shop remained empty, save for the sounds of various tools at work, their sounds echoing throughout. The sign read "Maijima Gadgets and Guns," named after the store's owner, Higari Maijima, an old friend of Toshinori's and one of the only ones to know of his condition, though he didn't know the secret of his Semblance.

The shops interior was filled to the brim with guns, weapons, and mechanical marvels of all types. If you could name it, it was more than likely on display. A man could be seen rummaging behind the counter, his hands, covered with heavy and thick gloves designed to cover his fingertips, were poking out as he dug through what looked to be a pile of... spare parts?

Moving on...

Toshinori opened the door to the shop, saying, "Mornin', Maijima! How've you been?"

The man behind the counter, who actually had a rather large and odd looking helmet, peeked out and, upon recognizing Toshinori, answered, "Better than you, judging by your frame."

The two let out very hearty laughs, the sense of familiarity between the two would be obvious to even the most oblivious of people. Toshinori walked over to Maijima, shook his hand, and greeted him properly. "It's good to see you after so long. Sorry I haven't kept in touch."

"Don't worry about it." He then noticed Izuku standing next to him. "And who's this young man?"

Izuku immediately stopped looking around at the weapons on display and practically snapped to attention, introducing himself, "I'm Izuku Midoriya. Nice to meet you."

"And that's not all. This young man right here is my apprentice." Toshinori said as he placed his hand on Izuku's shoulder, more than a little pride in his voice. "Don't tell anyone though. I'm going to be teaching at the school he plans to attend, and he needs to get in on his own merits."

"These lips are sealed. And good on you, kid! You must've done something amazing to catch _his_ attention."

"And that he did. How's business? Last I heard, you finally took on an apprentice after all those years of solo work. How's that been going?"

"Well, the shop's been well, and we make plenty of money from custom orders. As for my apprentice... well, let's just say that she still needs to learn-" an explosion suddenly came from the back of the workshop. **"… the meaning of restraint."** Maijima finished in a dangerous tone, slowly walking to the back of the workshop and looking at the mess his apprentice had made. "NOOOOOOOOOOO! WHAT HAVE YOU DONE TO MY WORKSPACE?!"

"I'm renovating it for the new welder."

"Mei. I know that you love to do these things... but this is too far! We can afford to have someone else renovate it!"

"But-"

"Mei, I know you just want to help, but you need to learn that everything has a limit. My patience included." Silence ensued for five seconds. "Look, if you could help the people up front while I deal with this hole you put in the wall, it would be a really big help. Just... don't do anything this extreme to my workspace again, alright? And be sure to give them a discount, one of em's an old friend."

"GOT IT!" She said, her voice dripping with enthusiasm as she rushed over to the counter, greeting them with, "HELLO THERE! MY NAME IS HATSUME MEI! HOW CAN I HELP YOU?"

With a few black marks on her tank top and sweats, it was easy to tell that she was a grease monkey, and the goggles on her head implied that she was very dedicated to her work. Her neon pink hair came down in dreadlocks, and her golden eyes almost seemed to have a target reticule in them.

"Yes," Toshinori said before continuing. "My apprentice here is looking to get a weapon. Is there anything on display that you could recommend?"

"CERTAINLY!" She exclaimed before grabbing Izuku's arm and rushing through the different aisles of the store, going through different weapon models and taking a few measurements as they went.

This was the precise time that Maijima came out of the workspace. "Well, I've covered the hole with some spare plating. It'll be enough till we can actually renovate the space." He then saw Hatsume showing Izuku various weapons, then placing them back at mach speed when she decided that it wouldn't be a good fit for him. "Ah. As enthusiastic as ever, I see."

"Where'd you find her, anyway?" Toshinori asked, curious as to why this particular girl had caught his attention. He'd been asked by many to take them as his apprentice, but he always said no

"She's an orphan. According to her, she's a half faunus, but she didn't get any of the physical features. Just the senses. I found her a couple years ago, digging through my garbage for spare parts, of all things. I'd have expected for her to be looking for food, but no, she just wanted to build something. I took her in, and she's been like a daughter to me ever since. She has her faults, that much is true, but... she reminds me of myself, in a way."

"And that would be?"

"She's always ready to build something new. A lot like me when first started this place." Maijima gestured to the entirety of the shop, his voice dripping with pride. Then his arms dropped, obviously remembering something he'd rather leave untouched. "She used to have night terrors, ya know. Doesn't talk about them much, and it's been about a year since she had any, but I worry for her. She still won't tell me about what happened to her before she met me. It's a sensitive subject for her, so we haven't really talked about it much."

"Is that why she builds? Is it... therapeutic?"

"That's part of it." Hatsume had now completely given up on what they had on display and was now showing Izuku various blueprints. "But I think it also gives her a connection to people that she'd otherwise have no way of contacting. After all, a huntsman is only as good as their weapon..." Maijima began his signature quote.

"...And a weapon is only as good as their huntsman." Toshinori continued.

"Rarely will one survive without the other." They finished in sync. It almost felt like old times. Almost.

"Look, Maijima, I'm sorry about-"

"Don't even think about finishing that sentence. You've got nothing to apologize for. It's my own damn fault I took the bait in the first place."

"But-"

"Look, I know that you still think that it's your fault, but it isn't. So get over it already. You've gotta stop carrying the weight of the world on your shoulders, or you'll die before you're forty."

Toshinori was about to retort, but decided not too when he realized that Maijima was right. He had other people to rely on, so why not start asking some help every now and then?

"Thanks, Maijima." Then a thought dawned on him. "Did you-"

"Haven't told a soul, not even Mei. We're brothers in arms, Toshinori. You trusted me with this secret, and I'm gonna take it to my grave."

"Thank you."

After a few awkward moments in silence, Maijima decided to start their conversation back up."So... one backstory for another. How'd you meet the kid?" He gestured over to Izuku, who was now talking specifics on a blueprint with Mei.

"He tried to save a kid from a pro-criminal, even though he'd told me before he didn't have much control over his Semblance. Despite being practically powerless, he tried to save the kid. Afterward, we had a bit of a talk, I took him under my wing, trained him for ten months, and once we get his weapon made, we'll work out the specifics of his Semblance."

"Sounds like you really respect this kid."

"I do. He did what someone without control should've never done, but he just wanted to help the victim in front of him."

"Well, if you want my honest opinion, I don't think you could've chosen a better person to apprentice."

"Thanks. That means a lot."

 _(meanwhile)_

"Are you sure you want to build them yourself? They'll take a week to finish, at least." Mei asked as Izuku rolled up the blueprint in his hands, the one that he'd finally decided on.

"Yeah. Thank you for your offer, but I need to do this myself. Most people who go to places like Beacon make their own weapons, and it just wouldn't feel right if I didn't do the same."

Mei than put her hand on her chin, now lost in thought. After a few moments of this, she snapped her fingers, telling Midoriya, "I'll be back in ten minutes," before disappearing into the opposite side of the workshop. She came out exactly ten minutes later with a small manual in her hands, and then explained, "This will help you with the construction, and it also has a list of the materials you'll need to build them. I can give you the circuitry, but as for the rest of it, you're on your own."

"Thank you. How much will all this cost?"

"Hmm... well, since you're only paying for the blueprint, along with the circuitry, it'd be about two hundred lien. But with the discount, I'd say around... one hundred fifty."

Izuku pulled out the amount from his wallet (many allowances were saved) and gave it to Mei, who happily pocketed the money. "I'll get the circuitry from the back." Was all she said before skipping inside the workspace once more, her face full of glee.

"So, I see you've decided to build it yourself," Toshinori said as he walked back over to Izuku, a knowing smile on his face.

"Yeah. It just feels right, ya know?"

"I know the feeling all too well, kid. Making those gauntlets myself was one of the most satisfying days of my life."

Silence filled the space between them for a few awkward seconds. "Hey, Sensei?"

"Yes?"

"You called the owner of this place Maijima. Does that mean-"

"Yep. His name is Higari Maijima, formerly known as Power Loader. He really hated the nickname."

"I know he retired, but why is he wearing that mask? The specifics of his resignation were never made public, and he'd never worn it before."

"That's something he should probably tell you himself," Toshinori said, leaving no room for argument. As he finished, Mei came out of the workshop with all the circuitry Izuku needed to build his weapon. Handing them off to Izuku, Mei gave him and Toshinori the biggest grin they'd ever seen her give, and said, "Thanks for doing business with us! Come again!"

"We will," Toshinori said before he and Izuku left the shop, a brilliant future ahead of them.

 **A/N: And that's a wrap for chapter 3! What did you think? Let me know!**

 **And now, to answer some of the possible questions that you may have.**

 **First, giving Izuku a weapon. Don't get me wrong, One for All is powerful in its own right, and at 100% it could probably obliterate a giant Nevermore with little to no effort. But remember what happened the first time Izuku used One for All at full power in HeroAca? That's part of it. The second is that I thought it would be cool to have Izuku build his own weapon. It actually kinda fits his personality in a way. It's a *SPOILER SPOILER SPOILER SPOILER SPOILER SPOILER SPOILER SPOILER SPOILER SPOILER.* Huh. I guess you'll find out in the next chapter. (Goddamn spoiler blocks)**

 **The next is likely the extra month that I gave to them in terms of prep time. This is only a slight deviation from the canon, and Izuku won't stand out as much due to the extra month of training from All Might. Let's be entirely honest, he may have been fighting robots during the UA exam, but he's going into a forest full of monsters that could easily tear him limb from limb. People have died during Beacons initiation before** , **and I wanted him to be a little more prepared than when he was basically dropped into the UA exam with almost no training.**

 **I also managed to fit in cameos from both Hatsume Mei and Power Loader, the de facto engineers of the HeroAca universe. They were both fun to write, and, if it wasn't already implied, they will be appearing again at a later date.**

 **I'm sorry if the end of the chapter feels less than energetic. I've had only four hours of sleep as of the time I'm doing this A/N, so my writing's kinda crappy. See you guys next time! And it'll hopefully have more energy than this one did!**


	4. Welcome to Beacon

**A/N: Hey guys! Guess what! I got a summer job (possibly)! Chapter uploads may be a little slow from now on, so hang in there!**

 ***Monster growls***

 **And I have this mother f %* &^ to deal with. Well, enjoy the chapter!**

 **Edit (11/3/18): I tried to fix what I could, make things flow better and other things make more sense, and I wrote the confrontation scene to be shorter and be more in-tune with Bakugo's character, because man, did I screw up there. I also gave Izuku some more nerdy moments, because everyone needs more of Izuku's nerdy moments.**

 **Disclaimer: I do not own RWBY or My Hero Academia. They belong to Monty Oum, Kohei Horikoshi, and their respective publishing companies. Please support the official releases.**

 **I do not own the cover image**

Chapter 4: Welcome to Beacon

"Izuku, do you have everything?" Inko asked her son with a happy expression on her face as he finished lacing together the strings of his combat boots.

"Yeah, I'm sure," he responded as he stood up, briefly taking a moment to stretch his muscles before reaching down to pick up his bag.

"Are you sure? You packed things besides comic books and action figures, right?"

"I have everything," he said in a slightly annoyed tone. Honestly, they'd been over this a few times now. He only packed one suitcase of fanboy stuff. That was what they agreed to. He couldn't take his entire room with him. That'd be absurd. Even if he really did want to bring it all with him.

Wait, why was he even debating this? He was wasting time! "I've gotta go now, or I'll miss the airship."

"Izuku!"

"What?"

Isuzu looked at her son with pride in her eyes, and said to him, "I'm proud of you. Remember that, okay?"

Izuku stood silent for a moment before giving his mother a kind grin and responded, "I will. I'll be sure to visit you during the holidays!"

And with that, and an eager spring to his step, Izuku sped towards the airport in the eastern portion of Vale, his adventures as the greatest Hunter Academy about to begin.

 _(airship to Beacon, 8:07 am)_

Izuku found himself sitting alone on the airship, trying his best to not look too conspicuous. He knew that he probably didn't stand out very much, but he couldn't really help but be self-conscious about how people viewed him. Being bullied for most of your life could do that to you. He scanned the hall in front of him, finding a few people with particularly striking outfits. There was one girl with an awesome looking red cape on her shoulders, and a boy with a soft-spoken yet incredibly classy style to his clothing; heck, even the blonde guy who looked like he was getting sick had a nice armor/casual clothing mix for his outfit.

 _Everyone here looks so much cooler than I do,_ the green haired inheritor thought as he down to his own ensemble of clothing. Compared to the few he'd already seen, his was rather tame. His bright emerald eyes shined underneath his messy mop of black and green hair, his freckles the same as they were a year ago. He wore an unbuttoned black blazer with sleeves that had been rolled up to his elbows, the kanji for green written in the same color on the back of it. Under the blazer was a dark green t-shirt with the kanji for forest written in black. He wore black khakis held up by a single brown leather belt, and forest green combat boots. On his forearms and hands each held metal vambraces and fingerless gloves with rounded metal sewn in front of the knuckles, and both were painted black with green details. On the back of the right glove was a sword, and on the left was a shield. They-

He was pulled from his thoughts when a hologram of a woman dressed in a white long-sleeved, pleated top that had a wide keyhole neckline and gauntlet cuffs that flare in pleats at the wrist. Her lower body was covered by a black high-waisted pencil skirt with bronze buttons and black-brown stockings. She also wore black boots with bronze heels, and a cape that was purple inside and black on the outside. The cut of the cape was stylized to end in flames and arrows, with a row of diamond-shaped bronze beads on the back. Above the line of beads there appeared to be an emblem of a tiara. She had very light-blonde hair tied back in a bun with a curl hanging down the right side of her face. Her eyes were bright green and she wore thin ovular glasses just in front of her eyes. She had dangling teal earrings that matched the hanging pendant on her collar. How was a hologram this accurate? No one knew.

But he knew who it was the instant she appeared! Glynda Goodwitch, Vice-Headmaster and the primary combat instructor of Beacon Academy! Holy crap, she looked awesome! He couldn't wait to meet her in person! Well, that was if he passed, and he shouldn't be getting ahead of himself.

 _"Hello, and welcome to Beacon."_ The hologram greeted the students aboard.

"Who's that?" Someone in the crowd asked. Izuku was about to answer them out of habit when the hologram beat him to it.

 _"My name is Glynda Goodwitch."_

"Oh." The person said, now having received their answer, attention now turning back to just what the hologram was saying to the student aboard the airship.

The hologram continued. _"You are among the privileged few that have been selected to attend our prestigious academy."_

 _I wonder why the left out the part about Initiation... oh! Duh! It would discourage people if they thought they didn't have a shot of getting in!_

 _"Our world is experiencing an incredible time of peace, and it is your duty to uphold it. You shall soon be required to demonstrate the courage and prowess befitting such a task, and it will be our duty to provide you with the knowledge and training to protect our world."_ The hologram finished its speech before fading out in a blink, disappearing without a trace.

 _Huh. They managed to work Initiation in there after all. Sorta..._

Izuku shook himself from his thoughts and stood up, suddenly catching a glimpse of the city outside the window. He rushed over to the window, wanting to see more of it. The city of Vale was beautiful. The shops were bustling with early bird shoppers, and the streets were just starting to fill with people. It was a marvelous sight, even if he couldn't see the people clearly.

Then a mechanized voice came over the loudspeaker, _**"Attention all passengers, please retrieve you carry on bags and prepare to depart from the aircraft. Thank you for using Adel Airlines, where our currency is our customer's satisfaction."**_

Izuku, now aware of the fact that they were almost at Beacon, quickly grabbed his yellow backpack, the one that he's had for the last two years. His mother had offered to get him a new one, but he declined, saying that the bag had too much sentimental value to just throw away. It was true. It was the same bag that had helped him save Bakugou.

The doors opened before him. The docks were bare bones with only a couple of terminals and a large landing spot in the center for multiple Bullheads to touch down. The academy behind it, however, was gigantic, so much so that Izuku thought he wouldn't be able to see the top of the clock tower at the heart of the school.

But he shook himself out of his thoughts once again as he stepped off of the airship dock with a few other classmates in tow, ready to finally begin his new life as a huntsman in training.

And then he promptly tripped over the edge of the bridge.

 _Whelp, I'm about to get knocked out by my own two feet. Great start, Izuku. Great freakin' start._ He thought before he landed face first on the ground.

At least, that's what should've happened. Instead, someone had grabbed the back of his blazer and caught him about halfway to the ground. "You okay there?" The person said as they pulled him back up. Izuku turned to look at the person who'd helped him, and was promptly rendered speechless.

The girl was fair-skinned, with purple eyes and dark golden hair worn loose that faded to pale gold at the tips. She had a tan jacket that bared her lower stomach, with golden brown piping and short, puffy sleeves with black cuffs that featured two gold buttons. Underneath this, she wore a low cut yellow crop top with an emblem of a flaming heart on the left breast in black. She also wore a brown belt covered by a pleated brown piece of material reaching from hip to hip around the back of her waist, with the emblem on her jacket emblazoned on the right-most pleat in gold, and a pair of golden bracelets sat motionless on her wrists. Underneath this was a longer, white, asymmetrical piece of material reaching to her knee on the right side, as well as a pair of black mini-shorts. She had brown, knee-high boots and orange over-the-knee socks, with the right sock pushed down just below the knee. A lavender bandana was tied around her left knee. An orange infinity scarf and black fingerless gloves completed her outfit.

Not seeming to notice that Izuku hadn't answered her question, the girl continued, "Well, if you can stand up straight, you'll be alright. I gotta catch up with my sister now. Seeya around!" The girl then ran over to the girl with the red hood he'd seen earlier on the airship, likely the sister she'd mentioned earlier, despite the fact that the two looked nothing alike.

 _I JUST TALKED TO A GIRL!_ Izuku shouted in his thoughts with some form of pride, with an odd smile forming on his face.

Yeah... 'talked'... right... moving on.

Izuku walked down the long pathway to Beacon. Why was this pathway so long? Probably to prevent any means of approach other than said pathway during an attack. See? And now you've learned how architecture can be a legitimate strategy when expecting to be attacked.

Anyway, along this pathway was the one with the red hood from earlier being berated by a girl in a white dress. Then, a girl with a bow came to resolve the conflict, and upset the girl in white even more than before. She stormed off, leaving the other two there while her servants collected her bags. Then, with her job now complete, the girl with the bow left the girl with the hood by herself, and she promptly slumped down and laid down on the cold pavement.

Izuku, being the introverted bullying victim he was, couldn't let her be this down in the dumps and began to walk over to her. It was at this same moment that someone beat him to the punch... again. A boy who looked to be around his age offered his hand to the girl, which she hastily accepted, and was pulled to her feet.

He decided to go over and introduce himself anyway. Why? He didn't know anyone else, and had nothing to lose.

"Hey." The two then turned to him as he addressed the girl with the hood, asking, "Are you alright? I saw what happened earlier. It seemed like that girl tore into you pretty hard."

The girl in question was fair skinned with silver eyes and black, neck-length hair that gradated to dark red at the tips, cut in an asymmetrical style. She wore a long sleeved thick black blouse with a high collar and red trim on the sleeves, a black waist cincher with red lacing up the front, and a black skirt with red trim. She also wore a pair of thick black stockings and black combat boots with red laces, and red trim around the top and red soles. Her outfit was topped by a red hooded cloak fastened to her shoulders by cross-shaped pins. A flaming rose emblem appeared as a large silver brooch and was pinned to a wide black belt slung around her hips on an angle, which also had bullets and a pouch attached.

"I'm fine. I'm just not good at dealing with people."

"You'll get used to it eventually. I mean, that's how this works, right?" the boy said to her. He was tall, with dark-blue eyes that were emphasized by his short blonde hair messily layered on his head with the right side of his hair nearing his right eye and the left side swept back. He is quite toned, having strong muscles in his arms, shoulders and upper chest. He wore a white, diamond-shaped chestplate cut off above his lower abdomen and white spaulders with rerebraces set under them. Underneath the armor, he had a black, short-sleeved hoodie with detached reddish-orange sleeves. He also wore blue pants with a white patch on the left knee, as well as elbow guards with cords strung through them and black high top shoes.

"I... wouldn't count on that happening anytime soon." She said to the boy before turning her attention back to Izuku, extending her hand and introducing herself. "Ruby Rose."

Izuku shook her extended hand and introduced himself in turn, "Izuku Midoriya. It's nice to meet you."

"And I'm Jaune." The blonde boy said as their handshake broke off, offering his hand for Izuku to shake, which he did. Then Izuku realized something.

"Aren't you the guy that puked on the ship?"

"That's what I said!" Ruby chided in before Jaune slumped over in semi-shame.

 _Also, why is her last name so familiar? Maybe I wrote it down in one of my journals? Well, I can always look for it later._

 _(five minutes later, elsewhere in Beacon)_

"I'm just saying that motion sickness is a lot more common than people let on," Jaune said as he explained his family curse to Ruby and Izuku as they walked throughout Beacon.

"I'm sorry. Vomit boy was the first thing that came to mind when I saw you," Ruby apologized.

"It actually is pretty common. I get it whenever I'm on a boat," Izuku piped in, remembering the time he'd gone to Patch Island with his mom by boat to visit his grandparents. He'd sworn to never ride a boat again. Ever.

Much to his dismay, this promise had never been followed through. One day!

"Ya see? And what if I called you crater face? Would that be very polite?"

"Hey! That explosion was an accident, and it was hardly even my fault."

"Wait, there was an explosion?!" Izuku asked in surprise and concern.

"Yeah, there was this girl in white who kept shaking this dust bottle at me, and then I sneezed and then the explosion happened and... you probably know the rest," Ruby said as she went from angry to depressed in a matter of seconds.

"Changing the subject... the full name's Jaune Arc. Short, sweet, rolls off the tongue, ladies love it."

"... Do they?" Ruby and Izuku asked simultaneously, though Ruby's was hinted with a bit of sarcasm and Izuku's was genuinely curious, due to his lack of social skills.

"T-they will. At least, I hope they will. I mean, my mom always says that... nevermind," Jaune said as Izuku's eyes suddenly lit in realization.

"Wait... Arc as in Braun Arc?"

"Yeah, that's my dad. Why?" Jaune asked with a suspicious look.

"Holy crap, he's one of the coolest hunters to ever live! I know he primarily operated in Anima, but he was renowned the world over for his sword and dust skills! And his semblance was so cool-"

Izuku suddenly stopped his rambling when Jaune started to look particularly uncomfortable. He hadn't really meant to go off on a tangent like that, it sorta just happened. But, he did stop, muttering an apology under his breath before they continued on their walk through the campus with a significantly more awkward silence between the three of them.

Ruby, being the person that she was, decided to break it by discussing the subject that she was best at. Weapons.

"So... got this thing." Was all she said as she brought out Cresent Rose. Jaune and Izuku backed away in surprise, not knowing how a weapon _that_ big could be hidden so easily.

"Whoa! Is that a scythe?" Jaune asked, not really having any other questions at the moment.

"It's also a customizable, high impact sniper rifle."

"A what?" Jaune asked in confusion, obviously not dealing with guns that much in his life.

Izuku then answered with a dumbed down version of Ruby's earlier statement. "It's also a gun."

"Oh. That's cool!"

"So whadda you got?" Ruby asked with a bit of a spark in her eye.

"Oh, uh..." Jaune fumbled with the sword on his hip. "I've got this sword!" He said, bringing out the blade that had served his ancestors so well, a nearly three-foot blade with a blue cord wrapped hilt, faded gold guard, and a pommel with a diamond-shaped finish.

"Ooo..." Ruby said in minor awe.

"And I've got a shield too." He pulled out a white shield with yellow edges and a double crescent moon painted on the front in gold, likely his emblem.

"Corcea Mors. Arc family weapon. Used and modified throughout the generations-" Izuku unconsciously started on another tangent before Ruby touched the shield, causing it to open and close several times as it flew out of Jaune's hands and he tried to catch it. Izuku then caught the edge of the shield and handed it back to Jaune, who promptly thanked him.

"The-the shield collapses into a sheath. So I can just... put it away."

"Wouldn't it weigh about the same?" Ruby asked.

"Yeah, it does."

"What about yours, Izuku?"

"Oh!" Izuku thought that this may have come up eventually, but not quite this soon. Still, he composed himself and began to explain his weapon.

He extended the metal on his fingerless gloves until they covered every inch of his hands. "They can cover both my hands entirely so that I can do some of my more complex moves without injuring myself. And-" Izuku then extended an arm blade tinted green on his right vambrace, and expanded a black buckler shield with green piping on his left. "I added these so that I'd have more options than just punching Grimm to death."

"So cool!" Ruby exclaimed as she rushed over to him, swooning over his weapon.

"Yeah, it's awesome! Took me a while to make, but they're still awesome." Izuku decided not to mention the grappling hooks so that he could get a little breathing room considering his newfound discovery of Ruby's... hobby. Yeah, that was the safest way to put it.

"Wait, you made those?!" Jaune shouted in genuine surprise.

"Well yeah, of course we made our own weapons. Most people who attend colleges like this do. But if Izuku is right, then yours is some kind of heirloom?" Ruby asked, staring at Jaune with a tamed version of her earlier frenzy over Izuku's gloves and vambraces.

Jaune hesitantly answered, "It's a hand-me-down. My great-great-grandfather used it to fight in the Great War." He looked at the sword with the respect of someone who'd only heard stories of its first wielder, almost as if he felt he wasn't worthy to hold it.

"That definitely sounds like an heirloom to me," Izuku thought out loud before covering his mouth and following it up with, "I said that out loud, didn't I?"

"Yep." Ruby and Jaune said simultaneously.

"I am so sorry! I didn't mean to-"

"It's alright," Jaune reassured Izuku. "Besides, you weren't far off the mark. It's an heirloom. Technically speaking."

"Well, I like it!" Ruby said with more enthusiasm than Izuku was expecting. "Not many people have an appreciation for the classics these days."

"Yeah... the classics..." Jaune mumbled to himself.

"So, why'd you help me out back there?" Ruby brought up the topic of how they met.

"Eh, why not. My mom always said, strangers are just friends you haven't met yet."

"That's... not entirely true." Izuku piped in, his voice lower than it had been before.

"Why do you say that?" Ruby asked, her head turned in an inquisitive position.

"I... never had the best luck making friends when I was growing up," Izuku stated rather sharply, not wishing to remember any more on the subject. "Anyways, do you have any idea where we are?"

"I dunno. I was following Ruby."

"Hey! I'm new here too!"

They started to look around for anything that looked like a landmark to help reorient themselves, only to find that the bridge was the only landmark around, and the one that they actually needed to find to get to the main hall. When they finally managed to get to the main hall, they entered the auditorium at the front of it, a plethora of students of different ethnicities, cultures, races, and classes in this large, yet somehow overly crammed room.

"Hey, Ruby! Over here! I saved you a spot!" They heard as Izuku looked over to his left, he saw the blonde girl that had saved him the trip to the infirmary earlier. But as soon as he caught sight of her, she vanished into the crowd, and Ruby along with her.

"H-hey! Wait up!" Jaune called after her in vain, as she was already gone. "Great. Now where am I supposed to find a nice, quirky girl to talk to?"

"I don't count," Izuku stated bluntly.

"I know." Jaune deadpanned. The awkward silence continued for a few more moments before Izuku suggested, "Wanna split up and look for Ruby?"

"My thoughts exactly."

The two then split up, looking for Ruby and her sister throughout the literal sea of students. Jaune was met with little success, mistaking another pair for the two of them an apologizing profusely afterwards, while Izuku actually managed to catch up to them while they were in the middle of a conversation.

"So, how's your day been going so far, little sis?"

"You mean since you ditched me and I exploded?"

"Whoa. Meltdown already?"

This was when Izuku decided it was time to intervene. "Actually, according to her, it was literal."

"Seriously?" The blonde girl said before recognizing Izuku. "Hey, you're that guy I saved from a trip to the infirmary."

"Y-yeah. I'm Izuku Midoriya. Nice to meet you." Izuku hesitantly extended his hand to the blonde, who gracefully accepted it and said, "Yang Xiao Long. Pleasure's mine." Yang then noticed something odd. "Huh. You're actually taller than me. That's weird. I could've sworn we were the same height earlier..."

"I-I'm pretty sure it's only by about half an inch. Wait... Xiao Long? As in Taiyang Xiao Long?"

"Yep. He's my dad."

"That's so cool! I mean, I know that he's one of the best martial artists in Vale, and I even based a few of my own combos on some of his stuff, not to mention the fact that he was on Team STRQ! Actually, I think IrememberwhereIheard-"

"Izuku, you're rambling again," Ruby pointed out.

"Oh! Sorry," Izuku said as his hands flew to his mouth out of reflex.

"Nah, it's fine. I actually think it's kinda neat."

"Can we get back to the part about me exploding now?"

"Yeah, sure. How did that happen exactly?" Yang said, now fully turning her attention back to Ruby, as did Izuku, who didn't really know the specifics of what happened.

"Well I tripped over some crabby girl's luggage, and then she started yelling, and then she shook this bottle at me, and then I sneezed, and then I exploded, and then she yelled again, and I felt really, really bad and I just wanted her to stop yelling at me-"

"YOU!"

"Oh Oum, it's happening again!" Ruby yelled before jumping into her sister's arms in a rather cartoonish manner. How was this possible? No one knew.

The girl in question was even shorter than Ruby, and was pale skinned with pale blue eyes and long white hair pulled back into an off-center bun tail and pinned with an icicle-shaped tiara. A crooked scar ran vertically down her left eye, likely from a fight of some sort. She wore a thigh-length strapless dress with a faint color gradation from white to pale blue at the hem. A small piece of black lace sat in the front of her neckline and the hem of the dress was scalloped and stitched to resemble snowflakes, with layers of white tulle under the skirt. Over this she also wore a bell-sleeved bolero with the same color gradation as her dress from shoulder to wrist, lined in red and with a ruffled collar. On the back of the bolero was a snowflake crest. She also had a small apple pendant on a silver chain and thin, rectangular silver earrings. Her boots were white, wedged heels and higher at the back than the front. They had a small silver decoration across the top of the foot and are lined in red. A thin white sash was tied around her waist with a pouch attached to the back. Her aura screamed smarmy royalty, although Izuku, still ever the social outcast, didn't really notice it. Just that she seemed to be very... how did Ruby put it? Crabby. Yeah, that was the safest way to put it.

"You're lucky we weren't blown off the side of the cliff!" She began to berate Ruby for the second time.

"Oh my Oum, you really exploded," Yang muttered as her eyes widened at the prospect of her little sister potentially being blown to bits fully hit her.

"I told you it was literal." Izuku piped in, still wanting to be a part of the conversation.

"It was an accident." Ruby said to Yang in a calm voice before rolling out of her arms and looking at the girl in white, rather hastily repeating, "It was an accident!"

The girl then whipped out a book and held it in front of Ruby, titled _Dust for Dummies, and Other Inadequate Individuals_. Ruby, not really knowing why the girl was showing her the book, asked, "What's this?"

"The Schnee Dust Company is not responsible for any injuries sustained while operating a Schnee Dust CompanyproductalthoughnotmandatorytheSchneefamilyhighlyencouragestheircustomerstoreadthiseasytofollowguidetoDustapplicationinthefield," she responded, her words beginning to blend together so quickly that even Izuku, who did that on a regular basis, could barely understand what she was saying. Ruby, not being able to keep up at all, let out a confused, "Uuum..."

"Do you really want to start making things up to me?" The girl asked, still holding the book in front of Ruby.

"Absolutely?" a hesitant Ruby answered.

"Then read this and never speak to me again." She said, practically forcing it into Ruby's hands.

Yang and Izuku, who both decided that Ruby should at least not have to suffer through the crabby girl's tantrum anymore, tried stepping in and suggesting a different approach. Yang began by saying. "Look, it seems like you two got off on the wrong foot. Why don't you start over and try to be friends, okay?"

"We'll be here for emotional support!" Izuku said a little too enthusiastically, though the girls didn't seem to notice.

"Yeah! Great idea guys!" Ruby extended her hand to the girl in white. "Hello, Weiss. I'm Ruby. Wanna hang out? We could go shopping for school supplies."

"Yeah, and we can paint our nails, try on clothes, and talk about boys like tall, blonde and... scraggly over there." The now named Weiss replied with so much sarcasm that even Izuku could hear it.

Ruby didn't seem to notice at all, and excitedly asked "Really?!"

Weiss was silent for several seconds before replying again with a very firm "No." There would be no changing her mind.

"Wow, sarcasm much?" Yang asked Wiess the rather obvious question.

Izuku nodded in synch with Yang's question, though before their conversation could continue, the headmaster stepped onto the stage and began his speech to the initiates.

 _"I'll... keep this brief. You have come here in search of knowledge. To hone your craft and acquire new skills. And when you are finished, you plan to dedicate your life to the protection of the people. But I look amongst you and all I see is wasted energy. In need of purpose. Direction. You assume knowledge will free you of this, but your time at this school will prove that knowledge can only carry you so far. It is up to you to take the first step."_

Ozpin then left the stage, and Glynda took his place in order to inform the students of their sleeping arrangements. _"You will gather in the ballroom tonight at no later than eight o'clock. Your Initiation shall begin tomorrow. You are dismissed."_

"He seemed kinda... off," Yang said in an unsure tone.

"Like he wasn't even up there." Ruby seemingly continued.

"But his speech did have a few valid points, though," Izuku said, surprising both of them. "A lot of the students in here just want to be the next big thing. If they want to stop wasting their energy, they have to _want_ to help people."

"Huh. Yeah, I guess you could interpret it like that. Then I'll just have to work even harder! Thanks, Izuku!" Ruby said to the green haired inheritor with a large grin on her face.

Surprised at the sudden praise, Izuku promptly blushed, saying, "I-it was nothing, really. Just an observation."

"DEKU!" He heard his insult of a nickname spoken by a sickeningly familiar voice.

"WellseeyoulaterIgottarunbye!" Izuku hastily managed to put together before he started running away from his dire wolf bully, leaving the girls even more confused than before. Then, a familiar voice said, "I'm a natural blonde, ya know."

Weiss facepalmed in frustration at the entire situation. This was going to be a long four years.

 _(five minutes later, elsewhere in Beacon)_

Bakugo roughly pinned Izuku to the wall with a loud but dull thud, anger so dense and prominent that his eyes were practically glowing red. Why? Why was this wannabe even here?

"I THOUGHT I TOLD YOU NOT TO APPLY! WHAT THE HELL DEKU?! I WAS SUPPOSED TO BE THE ONLY ONE TO GRADUATE FROM THAT CRAPPY HIGH SCHOOL TO HERE, SO WHY DID YOU APPLY?! DO YOU HAVE A FUCKING DEATH WISH?! CAUSE I'LL GRANT IT IF THAT'S WHAT IT TAKES TO KEEP YOU OUT OF HERE, YA DAMN FRACTURED!"

"Bakugo..."

"WHAT?!"

"Someone I look up to... said that I have what it takes. That I can be a huntsman. Someone chose to believe in me. So I'm gonna prove them right." Izuku then grabbed Bakugo's arm, his grip tighter than it had ever been before. And then, with rage in his eyes, Izuku looked at his bully and said, "AND YOU CAN'T STOP ME THIS TIME!"

Surprised at the hostility, Bakugo was quiet for several seconds. Izuku had just stood up to him. Properly. Not the weak-willed responses he would've expecting before; he was...

 _Oum, it pisses me the fuck off!_

With a sudden shove, the ashen blonde direwolf released his prey and promptly turned heel and stomped away, stating, "Fine! It's not like you have an Aura anyway! Don't come crying to me if you get mauled by a Beowolf!

Now out of Bakugo's sight, Izuku slumped down, and let out a relieved sigh. _That was way too close. I thought he was gonna blow me up again._ He shuddered as he remembered the years of bullying he endured with Bakugo. The explosions, the verbal beratement, the actual damage that he'd had done to him over so many years.

 _But I'm not that person anymore. I'm stronger than I was back then! I'll just have to prove it to him!_

Izuku then got up and started walking out of the corner Bakugou had pinned him to. Until he realized something.

"I have no idea where the ballroom is."

 _(Beacon Ballroom, 8:30 pm)_

"Thanks again for finding me, Jaune," Izuku said, now changed into an All Might t-shirt and green flannel sweats, his feet laid bare.

"No problem. I'm always ready to help a friend." Jaune replied, now dressed in a... baby blue onesie with a bunny head emblazoned onto the front?

.

..

…

Well, he wasn't really in a position to judge, having his idol on his t-shirt and all, so he didn't bring it up. Though considering how people were looking at him as he strutted down the hall, he started to rethink this decision.

Jaune said he'd already managed to find a place and had set up his sleeping bag there earlier, so Izuku was left alone. Again. Nearly every space there had already been taken by somebody, and no one he talked to had offered to even try to make any room for him.

So, he was wandering the ballroom when he noticed Ruby and Yang talking to the girl with the bow he'd seen earlier. Yang was wearing an orange tank top with her emblem emblazoned on the stomach, and thigh high black shorts, while Ruby wore a black tank top with an odd-looking heart on it, and white sweatpants with rose blub designs on them. The girl in front of them still had her signature bow on, but she wore a kimono and held a book in her hand. Deciding not to wait any longer, Izuku walked over to the group of girls with his sleeping bag under his arm, and asked, "H-hey guys. Do you know if there are any spots left? I've been looking for five straight minutes and I haven't found a single one."

"Izuku!" Ruby exclaimed as she zipped over to him, asking, "Where have you been all day? Was it that friend of yours? If he was the blonde guy, he didn't look very nice. Are you okay?"

Izuku leaned back to get some breathing room from the hyperactive Ruby, and answered her questions one at a time. "I've been... around. And yeah, he did hold me up for a bit, and... well, I wouldn't really call him much of a friend anymore. And yeah, I'm alright! I'm still in one piece, aren't I?"

"… I mean, yeah, but geez, you were gone for a while there. Started worrying me. But, now that that's done," she then bonked him on the head extremely hard. "Ow!" Izuku exclaimed, rubbing his now sore forehead. "What was that for?!"

"For practically disappearing on us! Don't worry us like that again, okay?" Ruby pointed her index finger at him for emphasis.

"Okay, okay I won't," Izuku consented.

"Good! Now, to answer your question from earlier-"

"Hey! What is going on over here?! Don't you realize some of us are trying to sleep?!" Weiss said as she came over in her nightgown, her hair let down from its ponytail.

"I agree with the young lady! If you wish to converse, you can do so by whispering!" A tall boy with combed hair, glasses, and blue flannel pajamas practically yelled at them, making frantic hand gestures as he did so.

Then Weiss recognized the three guilty party members, and Yang and Izuku seemed to recognize her too, since they all yelled, simultaneously, "OH, NOT YOU AGAIN!"

"Shhhh! Guys, she's right, people are trying to sleep!" Ruby tried to get them to calm down.

"Oh, so _now_ you take my side." Weiss antagonized her for a second time.

"I was always on your side!"

"E-er, can we please just-"

"Yeah! Why're you being so mean to my sister?! She's only trying to be nice!"

"She's a hazard to my health."

"QUIET DOWN, ALL OF YOU! WHILE I DO UNDERSTAND THAT YOU MAY NO LIKE ONEANOTHER, OTHER PEOPLE HERE ARE TRYING TO SLEEP! SO IF YOU WISH TO ARGUE, DO SO IN THE MORNING!" The boy with glasses yelled at them, making his hand gestures throughout. Surprisingly, it got all three of the girls to calm down. Satisfied with his work, the boy turned heel and sped away to his sleeping bag.

Weiss had already left too, so it was just Izuku and the girls that were present. He decided to try and introduce himself to the girl in the bow, but she just said, "Blake Belladonna. I heard your name from these two before you got here. Pleasure to meet you, I guess. Goodnight," before blowing out the candle next to her.

"Anyways, like I was saying earlier, we do have an empty spot next to us. I hope you don't mind sleeping next to girls." Ruby finished her statement from before Weiss arrived.

"N-n-no, not at all, thank you." _Crap! What do I do?! I've never had to sleep next to anybody before, much less a girl!_

The three then walked over to where Ruby and Yang were sleeping, and Izuku set up his sleeping bag at a medium distance from Yang, so as to not be rude or seem disinterested.

Then, as he was settling in, Izuku heard Yang ask, "So, Greenie, why're you so toned?" as she teasingly put her finger on his arm. Izuku, still being the introvert that he was, immediately turned redder than Ruby's cloak from the touch and flinched away in embarrassment.

Yang chuckled a little bit, and said, "Hey, it's just a question. But seriously though, how did you get this fit?"

Izuku hesitated before he answered her,"… Ten months of pure hell on the face Remnant."

"Seriously?!"

"Yeah. That's all I can really say about it without getting flashbacks." Izuku shivered as he remembered some of the workouts Toshinori made him go through.

"Why'd you go through that?" Yang asked as if it were no big deal.

Izuku hesitated for longer on this one. Should he just not answer her or give her a filtered version of the truth? He didn't really know her, and even if he did, he still had no idea how she would react to something like that.

So, filtered truth it was.

"It was the only way I could begin to use my Semblance properly."

"Ooooh. I mean, when you put it like that it makes a whole lot of sense. Goodnight, Greenie." Yang said as she rolled over to her other side to face her sister.

"Goodnight, Yang," Izuku said as he went to sleep, strange dreams appearing throughout his slumber.

 **A/N: Happy 4th of July everybody! For this authors note, I will not be answering any questions! Yep! You've gotta ask em' yourself!**

 **The next chapter may be a little later than usual, so be sure to keep that in mind during the next few months.**

 **Seeya in the next one!**


	5. Initiation

**A/N: Hello everyone! Sorry for the wait, but I made this Chapter extra-long, just for you guys! Enjoy!**

 **Edit (11/6/18): Not much to really edit out other than the mid-chapter A/Ns, which should hopefully make this story overall much less annoying to read through, in addition to clarifying and rewording a few things here and there.**

 **Disclaimer: I do not own RWBY or My Hero Academia. They belong to Monty Oum, Kohei Horikoshi, and their respective publishing companies.**

 **I do not own the cover image**

Chapter 5: Initiation

When Izuku woke up, he was very, incredibly, dangerously close to Yang's face. He knew that he was a rowdy sleeper, and that he often shifted around while he slept, but this was just ridiculous. Luckily, he had woken up first, and managed to back away, his face as red as a tomato. _Holy crap. That was WAY too close for comfort._

Izuku, now fully awake, rolled up his sleeping bag and placed it back with the others, and ate a breakfast consisting of toast, sunny side up eggs, and panca- _did that girl just inhale all the pancakes I put on my plate?_

The girl in question had short orange hair and turquoise eyes. Her clothing was a mix and match of some sort, with different colors and themes. She wore a collared black vest that ended at her waist, and her emblem, a hammer with a lightning bolt, was on the back. Under the vest were two layers of clothing, colored red and light-blue respectively. She also had a turquoise bow at the back of her skirt, and a white sleeveless top that formed a tiny heart shape between her cleavage and collarbone, with a white detached sleeve on each arm. She had matching fingerless gloves on each hand, and sported a pink skirt that started at the waist and ended mid-thigh. Her shoes were a mix of pink and white with pink laces, displaying her emblem on their soles. In addition, she also wore armor that began at the middle of her shoulder and neck and ended by her waist. She was shorter than Weiss, but that girl used heels, so at a base height, the bubbly girl next to him was most likely taller.

"Nora, what have I told you about eating other peoples food?" A boy with a soft-spoken voice asked the redhead, now identified as Nora.

The boy who'd minorly berated Nora had a long black hair tied into a ponytail that ended midway down his back with a magenta streak on the left side that was the same color as his eyes. He wore a dark green, diagonally-buttoned, long-sleeved tailcoat that was red on the inside, with black and gold trimming and pink cuffs. The trimming went down the right side of his torso and formed a black collar. He wore a black, long-sleeved shirt beneath the suit, and light-tan pants with black shoes. The two couldn't be more different, and yet...

"Sorry, Ren. You know how I am during breakfast and all. Anyway, where was I? Oh yeah-" Nora then began to try and form a plan with the now named Ren. Something about bribing Ozpin and... sloths?

It was safe to say that Izuku lost interest in the conversation at about that point. Now finished with breakfast, thanks in no small part to Nora, he went to the bathrooms to brush his teeth and change into his hunter's outfit, during which he was nearly tripped by Bakugou.

When Izuku went to his locker to retrieve his weapons, he heard a familiar voice call out his name. One that he actually needed to hear. Or didn't, depends on your perspective.

"Hey, there you are, Greenie!" Yang greeted as she ran up and placed him into a headlock. "Where were you this morning? You were gone when I woke up."

"I-I-I was getting ready!" Izuku managed to spit out after slipping out of her grip, still embarrassed about the earlier situation the Yang was still oblivious of. The fact that Izuku had managed to get out of her grip had impressed the blonde, since even Ruby couldn't get out of her headlocks when she managed to grab her sister. But she ignored those thoughts as Izuku continued, "I-I woke up before you and I thought about waking you up too, but that would've been rude and you looked like you were having a nice dream and-"

"Whoa. Slow down there, Greenie. Don't wanna give all the answers at **Mach Speed** now, do we?" Yang attempted a pun to cheer the freckled boy up.

What surprised her was that she heard a small, stifled chuckle from Izuku when she said it. _No way! Does he like my jokes?! I have to make sure!_

"I mean, even a **Flash** of **Light** takes **Time** to **Travel**." Izuku's chuckles were louder that time. _Holy crap! He likes my jokes!_

"You actually like my puns?!" Yang yelled in surprise, though it was more than a little forced at that point, since she'd basically provided herself with all the evidence she needed to answer her own question. And his reaction was perfect.

"O-o-of course I do! P-people say that I have a bad sense of humor-"

"That's bullshit! They just don't appreciate the genius that goes into the puns some people make!" Yang put her arm around Izuku's shoulder, causing him to flinch, though she didn't seem to notice. "Thanks for appreciating my puns, Greenie. Not a lot of people do that."

"Y-you're welcome." Izuku said before hearing a familiar red reaper suddenly gasped and yelled, "OH MY OUM, THERE ARE TWO OF THEM!"

Ruby was standing in front of an open locker, her collapsed scythe now in her hands, and her eyes now cartoonishly white and the size of dinner plates. How was this possible? No one knew.

Izuku decided to ask the obvious question of "Two what?" To which Ruby responded, "PEOPLE I KNOW WITH HORRIBLE SENSES OF HUMOR! AND ONE OF THEM'S MY NEWEST FRIEND!"

"So? Just because we have horrible senses of humor doesn't mean we're bad people, Rubes." Yang calmly replied. Ruby began a retort before realizing the futility of such a statement, saying, "You have a point. But no more of those Oum awful puns! Please!"

"That'll never happen and you know it," Yang said with a Cheshire grin on her face.

Ruby gave a chuckle before saying, "I know. Just old habit."

"You seem much happier this morning." Izuku pointed out, seeing as Ruby's demeanor was much happier and energetic than she had been the previous day.

"Yep! No more awkward small talk or getting to know you stuff. Today, I'm gonna let my sweetheart do the talking." Ruby then squished her face against the side of her weapon and let out a small cooing sound. Izuku didn't know whether to call it cute or weird. He decided to stick with cute, just to be safe.

Yang then tried to get Ruby down from her fantasy world and explained, "You're not gonna be the only one at Initiation, Ruby. You need to branch out and meet more people if you want to mature at all."

"Uuugh, you sound like dad." She then put her pride and joy in its holster and continued, "First of all, what does meeting people have to do with fighting Grimm? And secondly, I don't need other people to help me grow up. I drink milk." She stated the last bit with a little too much pride.

"Well, a lot actually." Both the girls turned to Izuku, wishing for him to elaborate his point, although Yang's casual gaze caused him to blush ever so slightly, just a tad below noticeable. Izuku decided to ignore the strange feeling and began to explain what he meant. "Knowing someone's personality type and what plans they're more likely to go along with can lead to more strategic variety on the battlefield, and knowing their flaws can better help you strategize how to make up for them. In short, if you know your team inside and out, you'll be able to come up with a plan for almost any situation on the spot!"

The two looked at Izuku with blank expressions for five straight seconds before Yang put her arm over Izuku's shoulder once more and said, "How did we not find this guy sooner?!"

 _Probably because I never went to a combat school._

"Okay, so there are strategic advantages, but what you just described could take years. Can't I just be on your team, Yang?" Ruby asked.

"M-maybe you should be on someone else's team," Yang said as she began to stroke her golden mane of hair, more than likely a nervous habit.

"My dearest sister Yang, are you implying that you do not wish to be on the same team as me?" Ruby asked, staring at Yang with a glare that would've made All Might shiver with nervousness.

Sensing the tension building between the two, as well as the fact that he no longer had a place in the conversation, Izuku slowly backed away before seeing Jaune, trying to find his locker with little luck. He approached his friend and asked, "Can't find your locker?"

Jaune turned and answered, "Yeah! My stuff's in locker 636. Do you happen to know where that is?"

"I think it's that one." Izuku pointed to his left, and sure enough, clear as day, were the numbers 636 printed in white on the locker's door.

"Oh thank you so much! You're a lifesaver!" Jaune thanked him before speeding over to his locker and retrieving his sword and armor.

"No problem."

Then Jaune peaked behind Izuku and saw the beautiful white angel that had so delightfully pointed him out the other day. She was talking to a red-headed girl in bronze armor, trying to work out a deal of some sort. _If I step in there now, I may be able to get her on my team!_

Jaune then walked towards where the girls were talking, seemingly not noticing the storm clouds behind her head that Izuku did. He then did the sensible thing and entered with the spooniest line he could think of, "You know what else is great? Me. Jaune Arc. Nice to meet you."

"You again?" Weiss spat out in annoyance.

The redhead, desperate to get out of the earlier conversation, said, "Nice to meet you, Jaune!" in the cheeriest voice she could muster. Unfortunately for her, Jaune simply pushed her aside to try to convince Weiss to be on his team. Izuku decided to ignore the conversation to better examine the redhead.

She wore her hair in a waist-length ponytail, curled slightly into a loose ringlet, and had vivid green eyes. She also wore light-green eyeshadow around the far upper corners of her eyes, and was actually taller and quite muscular compared to most of the other girls Izuku had seen; and while Yang was very lean, her muscles weren't nearly as pronounced as the redheads. Her top consisted of two layers. The top layer was a light-brown, strapless top split divided vertically with some bronze patterns. It was likely quite stiff, maintaining its shape without support; and this layer also had riveting or small, round embroidery on the sides, indicating heavy stitching. The bottom layer was a low bronze V-neck. She also wore an elastic, black, A-line mini skirt and brown opera-length gloves on both arms. She wore a red ankle-length drapery that wrapped around her skirt. There was a small circular bronze plate by her right hip opposite two pouches with both connected to a belt. The plate bore a red shield and spear emblem. She wore a bronze circlet headpiece that could be seen above her ear and under her bangs, and a pair of small, green, teardrop-shaped emeralds hung from her circlet on thin chains. She also sported a large bronze gorget around her neck, and a bronze bracelet on the upper half of her left arm. She also had elaborate bronze greaves that started below her mid-thigh, continuing downwards into her boots and a pair of cuisses that begin mid-thigh and end slightly above her knees. She donned a bronze bracer on top of the sleeve on her left arm and her high-heeled boots were brown with bronze trim, matching her skirt and sleeves, and reached up to her mid-calf.

 _I could swear I've seen her somewhere before. But where?_ Izuku thought to himself, and then got his answer when he heard Weiss practically yell, "She's on the front of every Pumpkin Pete's Marshmallow Flakes box!"

 _Oh yeah! Now I remember!_

Jaune suddenly gasped at this revelation saying, "That's you?! They only so that for start athletes and cartoon characters!"

Theredheadd, Izuku thought her name was Pyrrha, awkwardly replied, "Yeah. It was pretty cool. Sadly, the cereal isn't very good for you."

Izuku then lost interest in the conversation and began walking towards the exit of the locker room to look for the Initiation site. Then, his danger sense that he'd been built up during his training with Toshinori kicked in, as he sensed an object being hurled in his direction. Izuku caught Jaune by his hood, which was being skewered by a red and gold javelin. He then pulled the javelin out and tossed it back to the thrower, which, surprisingly enough, was Pyrrha. Then Izuku looked at Weiss, who had the smuggest look he'd ever seen plastered on her face. Even Bakugou was tamer than that.

"I suggest that you not throw that around in here." He calmly said to Pyrrha, "Someone could get hurt. And Ice Queen... why are you so **Cold**?"

Weiss then facepalmed and walked away as fast as she possibly could, again frustrated at the situation she'd managed to find herself in. And that nickname... it was so infuriating!

Then the loudspeaker sounded, _"All first year students, report to Beacon Cliff for Initiation. Again-"_

"Way to go with the pun there, Greenie!" Yang exclaimed as she and Ruby walked up to him and Jaune, who was still on the floor. Yang, deciding that she was in a teasing mood, asked Jaune, "Havin' some trouble there, Lady-killer?"

"I don't get it." He sort of answered. "My dad said that all women look for is confidence. Where did I go wrong?"

"I'm not sure that's all women look for in a potential relationship, Jaune." Izuku hesitantly answered, not really knowing a lot about relationships himself.

"Really?"

"You bet your ass, Jauney. If all we looked for was confidence, I would've run of with the first jock I saw."

"Come on guys. Let's get to the cliff." Ruby said as she left the room, the others trailing behind her.

 _(Beacon Cliff, 9:13 am)_

Izuku was now standing on a plate with Beacons sigil on the face of it, and he was very nervous. He could see Bakugou in his hunter's outfit standing about a dozen people apart from him. He wore a black parka lined with spikey red fur that ended right below his jawline. Underneath was a red t-shirt with the kanji for EXPLOSION written in black, dark jeans held up by a spiked belt. His boots, with various black and red designs, completed the outfit.

On his hands were gloves that covered his hands entirely, the back parts being black and the palm faces being red. Attached to them were a pair of men's bracelets, a single small spike jutting out of them along the direction of his forearm. His ears were down, as if he were anticipating something huge. Izuku shook his attention from his bully and turned towards Ozpin, as did the others who weren't paying attention previously.

"For some of you, it has been years since you began to train to become warriors, while for others, this is merely the first step. Either way, your skills will be evaluated today, in the Emerald Forest."

Then Goodwitch took over, "Now, I'm sure that many of you have heard several rumors about team assignments, so allow us to put an end to them. Each will be given teammates. Today."

Ozpin took the reins once more, "These teammates will be with you for the rest of your time here at Beacon. So it is in your best interest to be paired with someone that you can work well with. That being said, the first person you make eye contact with will be your partner for the next four years."

"WHAT?!" Bakugou practically screamed at Ozpin. Izuku thought he heard Ruby say that exact same thing, but if she did, she was more than likely drowned out by the sheer depth of Bakugou's voice.

"After you've partnered up, make your way to the Northern end of the forest. You will meet opposition along the way. Do not hesitate to destroy everything in your path... or you will die."

 _Well... that was certainly morbid._

"You will be monitored and graded for the duration of the Initiation, but our staff shall not intervene. At the end of the path, you will find an abandoned temple, containing several relics. Each pair must choose one and return to the top of the cliff. You will then guard that item, as well as your standing, and be graded appropriately.

"Are there any questions?"

Jaune raised his hand and began, "Yeah, um, sir-"

"Good." Ozpin cut off Jaune mid-sentence, not really wanting to answer questions. "Now, take your positions."

Everyone on the cliff then took some sort of preparation stance. Ren simply held his bladed oozies out in front of him, while the boy in armor next to him took on a sumo stance. Yang put her hands in front of her in a boxing stance, though not before putting on a pair of kickass Aviator Sunglasses, and Ruby simply kept her right hand hovering over where her scythe was held. Izuku himself had his gloves and vambraces at the ready, his hands at a slightly lower angle than Yang's. Jaune, however, kept his hand raised and again asked Ozpin, "S-sir? I-I've got a question."

The other students began to launch as he continued. "So this... landing strategy thing... what is it? Are you dropping us off or something?"

In a monotone voice, Ozpin simply answered, "No. You will be falling."

"O-oh. I-I see. So, um, did you hand out any parachutes for us?"

Nora was then launched, her face and voice full of glee. Ozpin answered, "No. You will be using your own landing strategy." just before Ren was launched, the boy in armor soon afterwards. Izuku could've sworn Yang winked at him and Ruby just before she launched, making him blush ever so slightly. Seriously, what is wrong with me today?

"So, um, what exactly is a landing strategyYYYYYYYYYYYYY-" Jaune was launched before he could finish his question. Now only Izuku remained on the cliff.

Ozpin held the slightest smirk as he told Izuku, "Toshinori wishes you luck."

Before Izuku could even process what was said to him, he was flung through the air and into the forest, Ozpin still holding his smirk as he watched the soon to be students begin their descent in to the Emerald Forest.

 _I know that this is technically a test... but if this isn't satisfying to watch, I'm not sure what is._

 _By Oum, I love my job._

 _(Above the northeastern part of the Emerald Forest, 9:16 am)_

Izuku, still processing what Ozpin had said, had seemingly forgotten that he was, in fact, flying through the air at Mach Speed. Now that he was aware that he was falling, he proceeded to enact his landing strategy. Once he was below the tree line, he used the grappling hooks he had in his vambraces to grab onto the trees, swinging down like a certain spider-based huntsman he'd read old comic books of.

He then stuck his landing with a tight roll, only to be greeted by a very large Beowolf, which stood up on its hind legs and began to howl at a pitch so loud that he almost had to cover his ears mid-descent. Izuku quickly ran up to it and activated his semblance.

 _One for All, Full Cowl! 5%!_

His veins underneath his skin glowed a bright green, electricity rolling off of him in small bursts. Using the extra strength he'd gained, Izuku punched the Beowolf's head clean off, it's body dissolving into black mist as it fell to the ground. Another Beowolf, even larger than the one that he had just killed, likely an Alpha of some kind, howled so loudly that this time Izuku had to cover his ears to keep his hearing intact.

This howl was cut short when it was promptly stabbed in the back by another student, a boy just a few inches taller than Izuku. His hair was split in color, the right side being completely white, and the left practically blood red. His eyes were heterochronic, the right eye a dull gray and his left a vivid blue so sharp it could likely see your soul. Over this same left eye was a burn scar, one that was likely more than a little painful when he received it. The outfit he wore was even plainer than Izuku's, a simple open blue jacket over a white t-shirt, with simple blue pants and reinforced white boots to complete the outfit.

In his right hand was a slender, curved blue saber, and, if the ice on the dissolving Alpha's back was anything to go by, utilized ice dust for its attacks. On his right hip was another saber, a stark contrast to the other, since it had a golden guard, hilt and a polished black sheath; as compared to the silver guard and hilt of the other. He then sheathed his open blade into a white sheath at his left hip, and a few nicks could be seen along the length of it, while the other sheath remained perfectly smooth and clean. Had he never used his other sword before? Izuku wouldn't know the answer to this question for a while.

The boy then jumped off of the dissolving Alpha's back and walked over to Izuku, and bluntly asking in a monotone voice, "I assume that you are my partner?"

Izuku, now realizing that they had made eye contact, straightened himself from his earlier stance, deactivating his quirk. He then extended his hand to the boy and greeted him properly. "Y-yeah, I suppose I am. My name is Izuku Midoriya. I hope we get along."

The boy across from him looked at his hand for a moment in hesitation, before taking it with a firm grip and shaking it, stating his own name, "I'm Shoto Todoroki. Likewise."

"S-so, where do you think we are?" Izuku asked once they finished with their introductions.

"Most likely in the northeastern part of the forest. That's where I think we were launched." Shoto then looked skyward. "It's still morning, and the sun is to our left," he pointed left for emphasis, "so that would mean we're currently facing north," he pointed straight ahead. "If we want to get to the temple, we'll probably have to go... that way." he pointed midway between the arc his hands had previously made, pointing directly northwest, which, ironically, was the exact place the temple was located.

"I-I see. Your navigational skills must be incredibly accurate if you could tell where we were from a few glances at the landscape in midair." Izuku praised Shoto.

Shoto, being the person he was, replied, "It's just a heightened sense of awareness, not much else." He then started walking in the direction he'd pointed at earlier. "If we're going to make a good grade, we should retrieve our relic as soon as we can."

"A-ah! Right!" Izuku said as he caught up to Shoto, the silence between them slowly making the trek to the temple very awkward. _Crap! How am I supposed to start a conversation with this guy?!_

Then, to his surprise, Shoto began the conversation. "What was that semblance? I don't believe I've ever seen one similar to it before."

Izuku, happy to have a topic of conversation, even if it was his semblance, began to explain with the cover story that Toshinori had drilled into his head. "It's called Full Cowl. It allows me to enhance my strength, speed, and damage resistance a hundred fold when I use it to its full potential."

"I'm sensing a but..."

"But... the first time I did use it at full power, I broke my right arm in twenty-eight places. It took a full day of aura treatment to get it to heal properly." Izuku shuddered as he remembered he day he first managed to use One for All. So much pain...

"So your own semblance is self-destructive then?" Shoto asked with a bit of concern in his voice.

"N-n-no! I have a safe way to use it. I can limit myself by setting mental barrier percentages. As I am right now, I can only use about five percent of my full power without hurting myself."

"I see." The conversation was again replaced by silence, though for a much shorter duration, since Izuku hesitantly decided to ask, "W-what's your semblance?"

"Why do you want to know?"

"W-w-well, I just thought... since I told you about my semblance, you would at least tell me something about yours."

Shoto thought it over for a moment, then deciding that it was only fair given the fact that Izuku had essentially told him everything about his semblance. _May as well do the same._

"You've probably noticed by now that I'm heterochronic, right?" Izuku nodded wordlessly. "Well, the research into a certain theory regarding semblances was proven correct seventeen years ago... by my birth. I have two semblances. I can freely manipulate ice and fire."

"Whoa! Really?! That's awesome!" Izuku shouted with glee.

"Quiet down. The whole forest is gonna hear us if you keep yelling like that."

"Sorry. It's just, there are a lot of studies into the nature of semblances, but the heterochronic theory is one of my favorites." Izuku explained, managing to contain his excitement.

"It may be for outsiders, but, as the first recorded person on Remnant to have two semblances, it made for a rather... challenging childhood." Shotos grip on his white sheathed saber tightened, obviously bringing up some bad memories.

Izuku, knowing all about having a rough childhood, decided not to pry. If talking about this made his new partner uncomfortable, then he would respect that and leave it alone. Then he asked another question.

"Why don't you use your left sword?"

Shoto spun around at Izuku, a look of surprise on his face. "How could you tell?"

Izuku was immediately shrank under the rather intense glare that Shoto was giving him, stuttering out, "I-I-I'm s-sorry. I-it's just that, your other sheath had a few scratch marks on it, and the black one looks like it's never been used before."

Shoto then gradually calmed down after about ten seconds of silence, following it up with, "I'm sorry. Not a lot of people can figure out that much by just a few looks at a pair of sheaths."

"It's just a heightened sense of awareness, not much else." Izuku quoted Shoto's earlier line, now much calmer since the tense atmosphere had passed.

"I walked right into that one, didn't I?"

"Yes you did."

 _(Beacon Cliff, 9:57 am)_

"Our last pair has been formed, sir." Glynda Goodwitch informed Ozpin, swiping her screen to the camera facing the pair she was referring to. "Lie Ren and Nora Valkyrie. Poor boy. I can't imagine them getting along too well.

"Still, he's likely better off than Ms. Nikos." She swiped to the camera facing Jaune and Pyrrha. "I don't care what his transcripts say, Mr. Arc is not ready for this level of combat.

"Well, I guess we'll find out soon enough." She finished as she closed her Scroll. "At the rate everyone is going, the pairs should be at the temple in just a few minutes. Speaking of, what did you use as relics this year?"

Ozpin continued looking at his Scroll, ignoring Glynda's question. Then a voice came from behind them, saying, "He decided to use chess pieces again. Seriously, what is with you and your obsession with that game? It's almost as bad as your coffee addiction."

The man saying that line was none other than Shota Aizawa, a man who, despite his normally relaxed attitude, was known for being rather strict with his students. He had shoulder length, unkempt black hair, a few strands dangling in front of his face. His beard was half shaved, giving off a rather lazy personality at first glance. His outfit was a plain black, long-sleeved shirt and pants, a dark grey belt with a few pouches for various dust tools, and black combat boots completed his outfit. While he may have looked very tired, Glynda knew that the man actually had severe Insomnia, and got as much sleep as he could, whenever he could. Even when he was teaching a class. He'd never talked about the condition, and, if his attitude was anything to go by the only one to actually know why was-

"Come on, Aizawa, lighten up on the headmaster. Do you know how hard it is to plan Initiation every year?"

Speak of the devil. Here was the man who supposedly knew the reason behind Aizawa's Insomnia, as well as a plethora of other secrets fellow hunters had entrusted him with, Toshinori Yagi, better known to the public as All Might, poster boy of the Big Four and, more than likely, the strongest huntsman to ever live. He wore a suit that was several sizes too big for him, but this was because he was currently in his true form. When he _did_ transform, the suit would likely just barely contain his power forms massive figure. Said suit was a bright yellow with thin black lines running down it, over a blue tie and white dress shirt.

"I am. He uses chess pieces a lot. I know that we have a few different locales for Initiation, but he's used them for the last five years in a row."

"Don't judge my love of chess because you can never beat me at it, Mr. Aizawa. And I do not have a coffee addiction." Ozpin said before taking a sip from his mug.

 _Oh really?_ Everyone else there inadvertently thought at the exact same time.

Toshinori let out a heavy sigh as he opened his own Scroll, deciding to monitor the pair that, as of that moment, required his undivided attention. The pair was comprised of Shoto Todoroki, the son of his own self-proclaimed "rival", and Izuku Midoriya, his apprentice.

Though only a few people, Ozpin included, knew that last fact.

He began to observe them in silence, as Glynda and Aizawa were once again at each other's throats for... whatever reason they kept fighting.

 _(Abandoned Temple, 10:09 am)_

After a long and actually rather talkative walk, Izuku and Shoto had finally come across the ruined old temple that they been searching for. In the center were stands with what appeared to be... chess pieces on top of them? Okay.

Izuku and Shoto walked down from the hill they were on, and were then greeted by Yang and Blake. Izuku decided to get a better look at Blake, since before he'd only ever seen her in passing.

She was fair skinned with amber eyes and long black hair. A ribbon was tied with a large bow on the top of her head, and she wore purple eye shadow in a cat's-eye style. She wore a black buttoned vest with coattails and a single silver button on the front. Underneath this is a white, sleeveless, high necked, crop undershirt and white shorts with a zipper on the front of each leg. She also wore black, low-heeled boots and full stockings with a color gradation of black to purple at her ankles. An emblem of a flame was visible on the outside of both thighs just below her shorts in white. On her left arm was a detached sleeve with a silver cuff around her bicep, and black ribbons are wrapped around both forearms. A small, loose scarf was wrapped around her neck and a gray magnetic backpack was strapped to her back, hidden by her hair. In short, she looked, and acted, like a ninja.

Yang, being as boisterous as she was, was the first to greet them. "Sup, Greenie. Who's your partner?"

Izuku slightly blushed when she looked at him, answering, "This is Shoto Todoroki. And we're fine, thank you for asking."

"Hey, Midoriya. Come over here."

"Coming!" Izuku came up the temple steps, noticing that they actually had a few different options as to the relics. However, one pair in particular caught his eye. Twin white kings.

"So, which one do we choose-" Shoto abruptly stopped when he realized that Izuku had already taken the white king out of instinct. "I'm not even gonna ask how you got there that fast."

Izuku gave a silent smile, while also pocketing the marble white king. Then, as he and Shoto were about to join Yang and Blake, they heard an incredibly high-pitched scream at a pitch that only dogs and cats should hear.

"Some girl's in trouble!" Yang immediately presumed. "What do we do?"

"HEADS UUUUUUUU-" Ruby screamed as she fell from the sky, Jaune careening into her as she fell, and causing both of them to crash into a nearby tree, Ruby landing on a larger branch and Jaune hanging upside down from another branch.

"Did your sister just fall from the sky?" Blake asked in surprised monotone.

"And where did Jaune come from?" Izuku asked in a more concerned voice.

Then, before they even had a chance to process what had just happened, an Ursa came charging through the forest looking ample for a fight... until it fell down a few seconds later, the damage from an earlier battle with Nora now taking its toll. Nora herself was on the back of the Ursa, and loudly complained, "Aww, it's broken."

"Nora!" Izuku heard Ren take the loudest tone he'd ever heard from the quiet boy. "Please, never do that again." But she was already gone and at the temple before Ren had even finished, deciding to pick a white rook. Izuku could've sworn he heard her singing before Ren called her back.

"Did that girl just ride in on an Ursa?"

"I-" Yang began before, suddenly, Pyrrha came running with a Death Stalker right behind her, dodging its claws as it swept at her. Then, as if by the good graces of the gods, she was saved from her chase by a Qiang that had embedded itself partway through the Death Stalkers head, the owner of which then yelled, "NOW, BAKUGOU!"

"I KNOW, DAMNIT!" The angry tone of a very familiar dire wolf Faunus rang through the entire area, and the owner of said voice jumped on top of where the spear was embedded and, using his semblance as a booster, slammed his fist onto the spear, running the Death Stalker clean through, killing it in the process.

"Did that girl run all the way here with a Death Stalker on her tail?"

"And did Bakugou actually decide to work with someone for once?"

"LIKE HELL I DID! I DIDN'T HAVE A CHOICE!" Bakugou said above the slowly dissolving corpse of the Death Stalker, pulling the spear out and tossing it to the boy who approached them, who Izuku recognized as the one from the other night.

He wore a blue tinted chest plate and shoulder guards with symmetrical, angular designs with the word **Ingenium** on the back of it, over a long sleeved, midnight blue shirt and white dress pants. His greaves were tinted the same color as his armor, though they for all their design suggested flexibility more than anything else. His blue hair and eyes, combined with his massive physique, seemed to indicate a naturally born live combat strategist.

Ruby then got down from the tree, trying to hug her sister before being oh so rudely interrupted by Nora jumping in the middle.

Yang had finally had enough, and both literally and figuratively exploded. "AAAAAAAAAAARRRGH! I CAN'T TAKE IT ANYMORE! COULD EVERYBODY JUST CHILL THE HELL OUT FOR TWO SECONDS BEFORE SOMETHING CRAZY HAPPENS AGAIN!"

.

..

"Umm, Yang..." Ruby gestured upwards. Izuku followed her arm, and saw Weiss hanging off of a Nevermore's claw for dear life. "HOW COULD YOU LEAVE ME?!" Weiss exclaimed as she tried to not let go of the only thing that kept her from death.

"I said to jump." Ruby excused herself.

"She's gonna fall." Blake and Shoto synched in the same monotone they'd used throughout their conversations.

"She'll be fine." Ruby replied.

"She's falling." Ren pointed out not half a second later.

After Jaune tried to do a heroic catch, failed epically, and ended up being caught by the blue armored boy, who'd briefly introduced himself as Tenya Iida, the group was now all together. Then another Death Stalker came charging out of the woods. Seriously, what are the respawn times on those things? Twenty seconds?

"Great, the gang's all here! Now we can die together!" Yang yelled out sarcastically.

"I don't know whether to laugh at the joke or point out the fact it was incredibly morbid." Izuku quietly deadpanned.

"Not if I can help it!" was all Ruby said before dashing headfirst at Death Stalker before anyone could protest or offer backup. The Death Stalker simply swiped one of its massive claws at Ruby, and while it was only a graze, it was enough to make her veer off course and crash.

Ruby was alright, roughly standing and yelling out to the others, "I'm okay!" Then she heard the Death Stalker behind her. Ruby managed to fire off a warning shot, which got her far enough to dodge its claw, then folding up her scythe and running back to the temple.

Yang started to run over to her out of concern that she might not make it. What neither of them saw was the Nevermore from earlier, which began to make razor sharp feathers rain down from the sky. Izuku, still having the same impulsive drive that had driven him to save Bakugou that day, ran after Yang with _Full Cowl 5%_ activated, and just barely managed to reach her in time to block and deflect some of the incoming feathers.

"Ruby!" Yang yelled out, her voice filled with fear. Izuku looked in the same direction, and saw Ruby about to be skewered by the Death Stalkers tail. _Crap! I won't be fast enough to get there in time!_

Then, a white blur shot past him, before stopping in front of Ruby, revealing it to be Weiss, as she stabbed her sword into the ground and summoned a glyph, making a pillar of ice protrude out of the ground, freezing the Death Stalkers stinger in place.

Izuku, now assured that Ruby was safe, turned his attention to Yang, who was simply staring at what had just happened. He tapped her shoulder, and, once he had her attention, asked her, "Can you stand?"

Yang silently nodded, accepting Izuku's hand up. He then gestured to Ruby and said, "Go get her. We'll meet you back at the temple."

Yang sped off towards her sister without a second thought, and Izuku jogged towards the temple, collapsing his shield in the process. Bakugou, being the impatient person he was, yelled at the girls, "HEY! HURRY THE FUCK UP! WE DON'T GOT ALL DAY!"

He was then smacked on the head by Iida, saying, "Can you not see that they are having a moment, or are you too dense to understand that?!"

"YOU GOT A DEATHWISH, FOUR EYES?!"

Izuku walked over to his partner and asked, "How long do you think we'd last with them on our team?"

"An hour. At best." Shoto stated in blunt monotone.

 _Well, that's not an entirely inaccurate statement. At the rate they're arguing, we'd have even less time than what Shoto suggested, and he was probably being generous._

"Uhh, guys... the Nevermore's circling back. What do we do?" Jaune asked with a shaky voice.

"Well, there isn't much point in staying here any longer. Our objective is right here." Weiss stated.

"She's right. We just need to grab three more of these and head back to the cliff. There's no point in fighting these things."

"FUCK THAT NOISE!" Bakugou yelled at the top of his lungs. "I HAVE HAD TO DEAL WITH LANDING ON A PACK OF BEOWOLFS, BEING PAIRED WITH FOUR EYES OVER THERE, AND TREKING THROUGH AN OUM DAMMNED FOREST TO FIND A PIECE OF SCULPTED PORCELIN! I NEED SOME FUCKING STRESS RELIEF, AND NOBODY HERE IS GONNA STOP ME!"

The forest itself was still from Bakugou's rant. Several seconds passed before someone dared to make a sound. "Strategic retreat, then?"

All eyes snapped towards Izuku when he finished his suggestion. He flinched at all the attention he was suddenly getting, and barely managed stuttered out his plan, "J-j-just because w-we don't _have_ t-to fight the G-Grimm d-doesn't mean t-t-that we can't. I-I saw an o-old bypass n-not too far f-from here. M-maybe we could u-use it to b-b-bottle neck them?"

"Great idea, Izuku!" Ruby exclaimed not a second later. Everyone else, including a very livid Bakugo, agreed to the plan Tenya, Ruby, and Jaune then grabbed their pieces, before Tenya exclaimed, "The artifacts have been retrieved! Now, let us hurry back to Beacon!"

The group of twelve then began running in the direction of the old bypass that Izuku had stated earlier, the Death Stalker only a hundred yards behind them and the Nevermore still looming ominously from above. As if adding insult to injury, the world then decided that they didn't have enough to contend with, and saw fit to send four full packs of Ursa. Seriously, where the hell do these things keep coming from?

"Get to the pillars and set up ambush positions!" Izuku yelled to his comrades, all of whom obliged except for Bakugou, who had to be dragged there by Tenya. On the way there, it was discussed that they needed to take care of the Nevermore first, then the Ursa, and finally the Death Stalker, seeing as the Nevermore could attack from range and was the deadliest opponent there. The Ursa, while not as strong as the Death Stalker, easily outnumbered them two to one, so the Death Stalker would have to be saved for last.

Speaking of, said Ursa packs and Death Stalker were currently chasing them out of their cover, leaving them no choice but to run towards the ruined tower the Nevermore was currently perched on top of. Nora and Tenya pulled out their weapons, Nora's was a grenade launcher and Tenya's was a sniper rifle, and they began to spray the bird in a hail of bullets, causing it to veer off course more so than if just one of them was shooting it.

The Death Stalker, now having nearly caught up to the group, tried to swipe for Tenya and Nora, but was promptly stopped by Ren and Blake, who managed to hold it back with their blades, and then Bakugou, surprisingly enough, used an explosion induced punch to push it back even further. The two shooters were then retrieved by Weiss and Shoto, who sent an ice wall at the Death Stalker for good measure, and they began to once again run for the tower. However, the bridge was then destroyed when the Nevermore came circling around and crashed through it, leaving Ruby, Yang, Weiss, Jaune, Nora, Shoto, and Bakugou on the side with the tower, and Pyrrha, Ren, Blake, Izuku, and Tenya fighting the Death Stalker and Ursas.

"Crap! We need to get over there!" Jaune yelled to the others when he saw the trouble the other half of the group was having.

As if on que, a temporary bridge of ice sprouted along the length of the destroyed bridge before Shoto began to run across, yelling back to them, "Hurry up!"

Realizing that they now had a way across, Jaune, Nora, and Bakugou ran over the bridge towards the others, though Bakugou in particular had a bestial gleam in his eye has bared his fangs in a cruel smirk.

Jaune the yelled to the group, "Half of us need to take the Death Stalker, the other half have gotta handle the Ursa Packs!" Before he and his group began work on the afore metioned Grimm.

Not needing any more direction, Izuku's group jumped over and slid under the Death Stalker, dealing with the backup that it had oh so kindly summoned. Izuku fully extended his arm blade and bringing his small circular shield to bare, reflecting a glancing blow from an Ursa, stabbing it in the chest before slashing the blade out through its side. He then turned and smashed an Ursas skull with a Full Cowl 5% enhanced shield smash. He slashed at another, tendons, the jugular, and several arteries were all cut open before it fell.

Izuku was the greeted by an Ursa Major, who roared with such a force that he actually felt himself being pushed back a few feet. Nevertheless, he sheathed his arm blade and shield, and, using Full Cowl, used a two-handed hammer strike on the Ursas head, but it wasn't enough to kill it. He then grabbed its white bone mask, and, in a God of War-esque fassion, pulled the mask clean off, putting the Grimm to permanent rest.

The others had finished with their packs as well. Bakugou's area was littered with fire, and Tenya's had several bullet holes scattered about. Shoto barely even looked phased as he sheathed his blue saber, his area covered in ice. They the rejoined with the others just in time to see Ruby and her group behead the Nevermore with a finishing move that amazed even Bakugou.

Then... another roar resounded throughout the bypass. But it wasn't from the sky or the ground behind them. It came from within the canyon beneath the bypass.

A dragonesque creature emerged from the depths of the white canyon. It was an Orochi. A serpent of the darkness.

Ruby was still up on the cliff, while her team was still on the ground. They were exhausted. They would not survive.

 **(A/N: You Say Run OST from HeroAca)**

 _"Ya damn Fractured wannabe! Why would they take someone like you when they could have me?!"_

 _"I'm sorry kid, but you'll likely never have an Aura, much less a Semblance."_

 _"Izuku, I'm so sorry. So, so sorry."_

These phrases and thousands of others that had been said to his throughout his life surged into him all at once. Then he decided something.

 _I will not be afraid anymore!_

Izuku then activated Full Cowl once more, jumping between the remaining pieces of the bridge in an attempt to get the Orochis attention. It worked, as said Grimm began to shoot fire at Izuku from its gapping maw. He managed to dodge them, thought they began to destroy what was left of the bridge. Seeing an opportunity, Izuku began jumping off the debris, moving faster than he had before.

Then, he saw the Orochi begin to tire. It was on its last legs, affirming that it was much younger than other Orochis, but it was still stronger than the Nevermore that Ruby's team had fought earlier, even if it was by just a small margin. Seeing his chance, Izuku held his gravity on the most airborne piece of debris, above the Orochi, and thought, _One for All! 100%_

He didn't know this, but as he activated his full power, the whited of his eyes turned black, and his irises began to glow a bright and vibrant green. Using all the power, he could muster, he launched himself at the Grimm, and, using his right fist, slammed into it. After a full second, he pushed his strike through once more, beheading the Grimm and killing it. However, herein laid another problem.

He had broken his arm in several places, and his left foot was fractured. And he was free falling.

However, before he could even prepare to launch his grappling hook, a certain blonde managed to blast herself over and catch him, and his partner had made a bridge of ice for her to land on.

"What the hell was that , Greenie?! What did you just-"

"It's his semblance. It's a power booster. But... he can only use five percent of its full power without hurting himself."

That was all Izuku heard before he blacked out into a dark, dreamless rest.

 **(End Song)**

 _(Beacon Auditorium, 5:30 pm)_

When he reawoke, his arm and leg were both healed, thanks in no small part to Peach Shuzenji, the school nurse and granddaughter of the Recovery Girl, a huntress who possessed an incredibly rare hereditary semblance named Recovery, which allowed her to heal almost any injury, though it was entirely dependent on her own stamina.

Yang, Shoto, Jaune, and Ruby were the closest to his bed, concern obvious within their eyes. Tenya, Blake, Ren, Nora, and Weiss were behind them, content that he was now awake. Bakugou was in the back of the room, being dragged there by Tenya and not wanting to even look at Izuku.

Izuku, seeing that they wanted some answers, gave them the explanations that Toshinori had drilled into his head, though Bakugou was less than convinced of it. He would have to talk to him about it later.

And so, here Izuku stood, his arm still in a cast, as it hadn't healed all the way, with Shoto, Bakugou, and Tenya, his new team. He didn't have high hopes of getting to lead it, but at least he had people to confide in now. Even if one of them was Bakugou.

The teams he remembered being named were CRDL, led by Cardin Winchester, who was the boy in plate armor that he'd seen earlier, JNPR, led by Jaune Arc, who was surprised at actually being named the leader of a team, and RWBY, led by Ruby Rose, who was just as surprised as Weiss when she was named the leader. Yang just hugged her sister, while Blake held a slight smile in the backdrop.

And then came their naming.

"And finally, Shoto Todoroki, Tenya Iida, Izuku Midoriya, and Katsuki Bakugou. The four of you retrieved the white king pieces. And so, from this day onwards you shall work together as Team STIK. Led by... Shoto Todoroki."

"WHAT?!" Bakugou shouted before he lunged at Shoto, and failing to harm the boy when he was restrained by Iida.

"It looks as though things are shaping up to be... an interesting year." Ozpin muttered to himself before sipping his coffee.

 _(Elsewhere in Vale, 10:34 pm)_

Roman stood in front of a map of Vale, various districts and stores highlighted and closed off.

"We're gonna need more men." Before taking out a cigar and his signature lighter, lighting it and letting out a puff of smoke.

"Not to worry, Roman. I can help you in that aspect."

Roman whipped around to see a man in a black shirt and pants, his body covered in fake hands, one obscuring his face. His hair was gray, though he did not sound old, and his red sneaker completed his outfit.

"And why should I trust you? Who are you, anyway?"

"I am Tomura Shigaraki. And _we_ are the Lodge of Criminals."

Tomura gestured behind him, and sure enough, there were dozens of people behind him. However, the way they got in wasn't what concerned him. It was what Tomura said next that he paid attention to.

"What do you need us to do for you... boss?"

 **A/N: Hello! I hope you enjoyed! Be sure to review and ask me any questions you may have!**

 **See you in the next one!**


	6. The Badge and The Burden

**A/N: Hello wonderful people! Thank you for continuing to read this story in spite of its many, many flaws, including my own personality. Without further ado, enjoy the chapter!**

 **Edit (11/9/18): I have done what I can to improve the latter part of the chapter, since it was one of the ones that I was kinda struggling with. I still don't think it's all that good, so don't surprised if this one still seems a bit boring.**

 **Disclaimer: I do not own RWBY or My Hero Academia. They belong to Monty Oum, Kohei Horikoshi, and their respective publishing companies. If I owned them, this would be the canon storyline.**

 **I do not own the cover image**

Chapter 6: The Badge and The Burden

Izuku woke up to the sound of a rather loud whistle coming from Tenya's bed, followed by a rather loud, "Good morning, everyone! I hope you slept well!"

"PUT A SOCK IN IT, FOUR EYES! IT'S SIX IN THE MORNING!"

Oh yeah. And he was in his dorm room with his four-man team at Beacon. Bakugo was sitting upwards in his bed at the far side of the room, still in his black tank top and bright red flannel pants, his ears pointed down in an obvious rage, his teeth coming to bare for emphasis.

"By Monty, do you ever shut up?" Shoto said, getting up from his own bed, dressed in a blue t-shirt and gray flannel pants, looking rather annoyed at both Bakugo and Tenya, likely because they were the ones who'd woken him up. Rather rudely too.

Okay, some context on the situation that Izuku is currently in. Bakugo, despite being very surprised that Izuku had managed to survive Initiation at all, let alone behead an Oum damned Orochi youth with a single punch, was keeping his promise, and, as far as he knew, hadn't told anyone about him being a former Fractured. Izuku thought that Bakugo was going to kill him, but thus far, he hadn't made any attempts of the kind, though he always seemed to look at Izuku with a silent rage from then on.

It was enough to make Izuku choose the furthest possible bed he could be in from Bakugo, so it was safe to say that things were still fairly tense between them.

"DO YOU WANNA DIE TOO, HALF AND HALF?!" Bakugo threatened Shoto, though it only made his right eye begin twitching in irritation.

Bakugo was then promptly smacked upside the head by Tenya, who began to lecture him on the etiquette of a proper huntsman. It was at this time that Izuku decided to slip into the bathroom and get changed into his uniform, which consisted of a black suit lined with gold threading, accompanied by a blue vest and a red tie. It was a little flashy for Izuku's tastes, but he liked it nonetheless.

He then slipped out of the bathroom and signaled Shoto to get ready. Shoto got the message, and silently slid into the bathroom, emerging a few minutes later in the same uniform. They then silently walked out of the room, making very little noise while they did so, though that didn't really matter since you could more than likely hear Bakugo and Tenya arguing through the walls.

Breakfast lasted much longer than normal, and Izuku and Shoto small talked through most of it. Though there was one small detail that was practically making the green haired inheritor bounce in his seat in pure awe.

"So, your dad is Endeavor? As in _the_ Endeavor?!"

"Yeah. I don't really talk about it that much though. The only reason I told you was because if I didn't, it probably would've caused some problems down the line."

Izuku, being the person that he was, began mumbling and writing notes in a notebook labeled "Huntsman Notes No.14" on the cover, his hand practically a blur as he wrote out a series of calculations and various notes of... whatever those notes were of. Seriously, how could he read those? They were barely legible.

Izuku quickly realized that he went into one of his "notetaking frenzies" again, promptly putting away the notebook, and, with a sheepish smile on his face, apologized. "I-I'm sorry. I get like whenever I get new info on huntsmen."

"I hope it won't be a problem to the team dynamic. Although... your frenzies are probably the least of our problems, considering our other two teammates."

Shoto hit the nail right on the head with that one. Tenya and Bakugo seemed to argue every chance that they got, and if they kept it up, the team wouldn't last another week, let alone an hour.

"Yeah, you're right about that. Still though, you're one of the children of the Big Four! This is a very big deal!" Izuku whisper-shouted to Shoto, who only looked at his partner with a neutral face.

The Big Four were the four strongest Huntsmen in the world, voted upon every year by the various peoples of every kingdom. These Huntsmen, whether they choose to accept the title or not, are agreed upon as the strongest of all their ilk. The current holders of these titles were as follows. All Might, said to be the strongest and most courageous Huntsman to ever live, the current poster boy of the Big Four, also nicknamed the "Symbol of Hope." Endeavor, a battle specialist who mostly kills Grimm and captures criminals, with very few rescue missions under his belt. Black Reaper, a man shrouded in so much mystery that, other than his real name, the only people who really knew anything about him was his own team, and they were either KIA, MIA, or semi-retired. And finally, there was Franken Stein, a scientist so incredibly crazy that he uses his own body for experimentation with Dust, cybernetic implants, and a slue of pseudo-sciences that almost made him a walking corpse.

All four of these people would be called upon in a time of great crisis to work together as a team, under no true name, and no true calling to stay together. They were assembled for the mission, and the mission alone. That was it. There could be some comradery found within this group at times, but it rarely lasted.

One more thing. A prominent member of the Big Four, a Huntress by the codename Flaming Rose, was killed thirteen years ago under mysterious circumstances. The details were never made public, not even her family knew the whole story. All they knew was that she had died a hero, and the only thing left of her was the broken remains of her weapon.

But I digress...

Shoto calmly whispered, "Keep your voice down. I told you that secret because I need you to trust me, but I don't want anyone else to find out about this, not even Tenya. And _especially_ not Bakugo."

"Do you... want to change the subject?"

"Gladly. What's our first class?" Shoto replied, not seeming particularly concerned about their other teammates, who had yet to catch up with them. Then he further explained, "Don't worry. Tenya studied and memorized the entire schedule last night. They'll be fine without us."

"Oh. Okay." Izuku then dug around his backpack for the schedule that Shoto had mentioned. "Here it is! Okay... our homeroom is Shouta Aizawa. He teaches General Studies and Semblance Application."

"Which of those do we have first?"

"The latter." A flash of recognition then came upon Izuku's face, prompting him to search his bag and pull out a different notebook, "Huntsmen Notes No.12," flipping through random pages until he stopped on the one that he was looking for about halfway through. "He was actually pretty well known a couple years ago. Went by the nickname 'Erasure Head.' And a prime Big Four candidate. He specialized in capture missions, but otherwise he's actually fairly well rounded out. But..."

"What? What happened?"

"Well... he was called in by his old team, they wanted to do a job together. He accepted the invitation... but he was the only person to come out alive. He never talked about it with the media, or even with close friends. The only person who's even rumored to talk to him about it is All Might."

"Anything else we need to know?"

"He has severe Insomnia. Other than that, there isn't really anything else worth knowing."

"Wait, he has Insomnia? How the hell did he get that?"

"I don't know. The details were never made public, but I'm guessing that it had something to do with that mission he went on with his team."

Izuku was going to continue until he saw the clock, displaying 8:45 on its face. "Aw crap! We've gotta get to class!" He said to Shoto as he put his backpack straps over his shoulders.

"Why? What's that rush?"

"His class is on the other side of the school!"

It was at this moment that Shoto immediately grabbed his bag and ran with Izuku towards the other end of the school. It took them a little while, but they managed to arrive with five minutes to spare, with their homeroom teacher nowhere in sight. They took seats next to each other in the center of the class, with a view of the nearly the entire class. Why had no one else taken those seats already? No one knew.

A minute before the bell, Tenya and Bakugo zipped into the classroom with pieces of toast in their mouths, though Bakugo's looked far more charred than Tenya's. Being the person that he was, Tenya sat down next to his teammates, while Bakugo, being the narcissistic asshole, stayed as far away from them as he possibly could, which, unfortunately for him, wasn't very far.

Then the bell rang, and at the literal same moment, their homeroom teacher walked through the door. He wrote his name on the board, and introduced himself in a very tired and dejected voice. "Hello, first years. My name is Shouta Aizawa. While you are in this classroom, you will address me as Mr. Aizawa or not at all. Now, as I'm sure some of you know, this class is Semblance Application. While we are in this class, there will be very little deskwork. Most of it will be hands on. You will learn to use your semblances without the help of weapons, and sparring matches will be commonplace. Be prepared to get injured."

"What's the difference between this and Combat Class?" A random student asked, obviously not paying attention to the 'speech' Aizawa was giving.

"Well, I'm sure that if you were paying any attention at all, you'd know that you have to fight in these matches with your Semblance and your bare hands, nothing else. Now, as it is the first day, there won't be any actual sparring matches. I will instead be giving you a preliminary paper test to see just how much you understand your own power."

"WHAT THE HELL?! I THOUGHT YOU SAID THIS WOULD BE A HANDS ON CLA-" Bakugo began yelling before being gagged by Aizawa's scarf, which had restrained him to the point that he couldn't move.

"If you could let me finish... this test will take a while to grade, and once I'm finished with it, you will be placed in a tier bracket. Tier 1 will be the people who understand their Semblances the most, and Tier 5 will be those who don't even know what their semblances are. This test won't affect your grade, but I do recommend that you take it seriously. By the end of the year, I expect every single one of you to be at Tier 1 level, semblance or not. If you aren't, I will fail you, and you will have to take this course again. Am I understood?"

"YES SIR!" Nearly everyone but Shoto and Bakugo answered, since one of them wasn't intimidated and the other one was currently being gagged.

"Good." He replied to their answer as he let Bakugo out of his scarfs grasp. "Now..." he pulled out a small stack of papers, obviously the test that he'd mentioned previously.

"Let's begin, shall we?"

 _(two hours later, Izuku's POV)_

It was a relief to all of STIK when the bell finally rang throughout the halls of Beacon Academy, letting them get out of that nightmare of a class that they'd just gone through. Man, how the hell did someone get through this class in one piece? And those questions were both incredibly probing and in certain cases very personal. Aizawa wasn't kidding when he said that they should take it seriously.

"Midoriya. Would you stay a moment? I have a few things to discuss with you," Aizawa said as he casually began looking through their tests.

The aforementioned green haired inheritor briefly gulped in nervousness before he turned back to his partner, saying, "You guys should go on ahead. I'll catch up soon, promise!"

Shoto nodded to his partner in acknowledgment as he and the rest of the team walked off towards their next class, leaving him alone with the disheveled teacher, heavy bags under his eyes as he continued to go through their tests unimpeded.

"I understand that your semblance is a rather unique case."

 _… oh boy._

Aizawa placed down the test in his hand as he stood from behind his desk and walked over to his student, continuing, "You've already developed a way to use it safely, but there's also the problem that you're too reckless and self-sacrificial to hold back when you should. You remind me of mister media-attention like that. But, if you use your full power in this classroom, under any circumstances, I won't hesitate to fail you right then and there. This is for the safety of the other students, as well as yourself. You have a way to use your semblance safely, so use it.

"It's good to have those kinds of instincts, Midoriya. Makes you more heroic than most people who walk these halls. But let me be clear. If you can't help yourself in a desperate situation without resorting to your full power, you'll be no good to anybody. Least of all yourself. Okay?"

Izuku nodded shakily, seeing as Aizawa had been giving him a rather intense 'evil-eye' the entire time he'd been talking. Oh man, that glare was intense.

"Then we have an understanding. Good. Now go on to your next class. If it's with Glynda, I suggest you start hurrying. She's a stickler for punctuality," Aizawa warned Izuku as reclaimed his chair, sifting through the tests once again as the green haired inheritor scurried out the door.

Izuku then briefly doubled back and poked his head inside the classroom, asking, "Erm... Mr. Aizawa? What if I happen to accidentally go full power during combat class or something?"

"Then you'll have to deal with Glynda. In which case, may whatever gods exist have mercy on your soul, you poor bastard," Aizawa said without even looking up from the tests he was going over as Izuku quickly turned heel and began rushing out through the hall to his next class.

 _(a few minutes later, the combat arena, Izuku's POV)_

Izuku, currently was jogging along at a rather brisk pace as a few of the others did the same, with Bakugo and Tenya trying to lap each other while he and Shoto simply jogged. The same was happening with Ruby and Weiss. Though it appeared as though the rose-themed reaper had the upper hand in that regard, seeing as the white-haired heiress was currently panting as she continued to run along the path.

"They've been like that since this morning," Yang clarified as she caught up to Izuku, noticing that he'd been keeping track of the two since class had started. "I don't know what happened between them, but it's been pretty loud ever since then."

Izuku simply nodded as they finished the run, all while his other two teammates continued to try and outpace each other long after they should've stopped. Shoto, ever full of sage wisdom, offered, "Do you think you should interfere? If it's really gotten this bad, then you ought to stop it, right?"

"I mean, yeah, but I can't keep bailing her out. When we were back on Patch, it was easier. I was her big sister, and I was around, so I kept the local jerks off her back when I could. But that was high school, and we're at Beacon now. We're supposed to be learning about how to deal with real problems, and if I keep bailing her out, she won't learn how to deal with people properly."

And it was now Izuku's time to be awed by Yang's rather sagely knowledge. During most of his own time in high school, he hadn't really had anyone who stuck up for him, on account of the fact that he was a Fractured and all. But they were in college now. And Yang's words had kinda struck a chord with him. No one had come to his rescue, but maybe he was better off for it.

A memory of Bakugo blowing his journal to smithereens just under a year ago quashed these thoughts immediately. He always wished he had friends to rely on. And now he had them, even if he didn't know them all that well, at least for the moment. Shoto was pretty nice, and just this morning, in Aizawa's class, had defended him from a stereotype embodiment of the jock bully in human form know to Remnant as Cardin Winchester. But he wasn't always going to be around. He'd have to deal with this stuff on his own eventually.

But until then... well, he had people to practice talking to, right? So, he ought to talk to them!

 _… that might take a while._ Izuku thought as they continued on to the next exercise, the rest of the day becoming a blur as they kept trying to stay out of the crossfire of their teammates antics.

 **A/N: GIMME QUESTIONS!**

 **Also, sorry for the short chapter. The next one will be longer, I promise!**


	7. Combat Class, oh Joy!

**A/N: Hello everybody! Aragon here to bring you another Chapter! Thank you all for your support and criticism! It really helps out and I appreciate all of it. Now, I am due for a battle with the WBM (Writers Block Monster), and I can't be late. Enjoy!**

 **Edit (11/10/18): I left the fight essentially how it was, and got rid of the schedule since it didn't really make a whole lot of sense.**

 **Review responses:**

 **Natasha Rei-Kun: I know. And they will continue to appear. MUHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!**

 **(11/9/18): I no longer agree with this statement. Thank you very much for pointing this out, even though I didn't realize that it was a problem at the time.**

 **Guest: I know, but A: this was really the only way I could get the team name to work, and B: Izuku and Tenya aren't really in the leader position either, and Bakugo is definitely not leader material. Shoto was the best choice out of all the people I picked to be on the team. Except for, maybe, Izuku.**

 **Disclaimer: I do not own RWBY or My Hero Academia. They belong to Monty Oum, Kohei Horikoshi, and their respective publishing companies.**

 **I do not own the cover image**

Chapter 7: Combat Class, oh Joy!

"Hello students, and welcome to Combat Class. I am your instructor, Ms. Goodwitch. This class shall be a complete hands-on experience. No bookwork, no homework, just sparring. Now, there are a few rules that will be put into place before we begin.

"Rule 1: Be prepared to fight anyone and everyone. This class' battle roulette system is completely randomized, and, as such, you may even be expected to fight your own teammates. Rule 2: You may request to fight someone of your choosing, but this will only be allowed once a class. Rule 3: If someone's Aura goes into the red, both fighters will be expected to back down. If you don't, you will be disqualified. And Rule 4: Don't hold back. That is all."

Izuku and everyone else in the room were listening attentively as Goodwitch explained the rules. It may have been a combat class, but nobody there wanted to get on their teacher's bad side. The rumors did not paint the most... pleasant pictures of her detentions.

"Now, with that out of the way, we shall now commence our first official spar of the year." Goodwitch then pressed a button on her scroll, setting the two pictures of the board onto a roulette, the faces of random students flickering on for a fraction of a second before flicking to another.

And then they stopped. On the board were the pictures of Katsuki Bakugo and...

Izuku Midoriya.

Bakugo, realizing the fact that he could actually rip Izuku to shreds in front of everybody and not get in trouble for it, grinned with a full-toothed smile, baring his fangs in a way that resembled a wolf stalking its prey.

Izuku, by contrast, turned a very cartoonish shade of white, somehow managing to cover even his clothes. In his mind, he was repeating the exact same line over and over.

 _I'mgonnadieI'mgonnadieI'mgonnadieI'mgonnadieI'mgonnadieI'mgonnadieI'mgonnadieI'mgonna-_

"Mr. Midoriya!" Goodwitch snapped at Izuku, causing him to leave his earlier thoughts in the back of his mind. "Please prepare for your spar. You have ten minutes."

Izuku promptly left his seat and went to the locker room, retrieving his weapons from his locker. He wanted to approach the fight calmly, with a preemptive strategy, but every time he tried, he would flash back to a time that Bakugo had bullied him. Once in the creek behind their old pre-school, another time when Bakugo decided to blow him up for sport, and the time that Bakugo blew up his old notebook.

He wasn't ready for this battle. It was too soon.

But he didn't have a choice.

He walked towards the arena with his head held low, only keeping his eyes open to see where he was going. Izuku already thought he was going to lose.

Thankfully, a little pep talk from a couple of friends changed that mindset.

"Heya Greenie. You alright there?"

Izuku looked up to see Yang and Shoto at the door to the arena. He gave them a small smile, responding, "Not really. I'm scared out of my mind right now. I have no idea how to fight Bakugo, let alone beat him."

"What do you mean?" Shoto asked, his voice hinted with concern.

"We... have a bit of history." Izuku hesitantly answered, not really knowing whether to tell his friends about his past with the dire wolf or not.

"So you two knew each other before Beacon?" Yang asked, her happier demeanor from just seconds earlier now all but gone.

"You can say that. We didn't really get along, and he was usually the stronger out of the two of us." Izuku said, only giving the slightest of hints as to the nature of Bakugo's bullying.

"You two used to fight?"

"'Fight' is... relative. He was barely even challenged when we did."

"But how the hell did he manage to beat you? You decapitated an Orochi Youth with a single punch! And even then, those things are stronger than a full-grown Nevermore! It took my whole team to take one of those things down!"

"Well... remember when I said that I went through hell for ten months to use my semblance properly?"

Yang nodded her head, while Shoto, new to this information, listened attentively.

"The first time I tried to used my semblance, my left arm shot out of its socket." Causing Yang's eyes to widen and Shoto's gaze to harden. Yang began to ask about it when Goodwitch called for him to get into the arena.

"I'll ask you about it later. Kick his ass, Greenie!" Yang said, punching Izuku lightly on the shoulder as she ran past him towards the stairs leading up to the stands.

"Yeah right. How am I supposed to beat him if I can't even look him in the eye?" He muttered to himself as Yang ran up the stairs.

"Just fight."

Izuku looked over at Shoto, confusion clear in his widened eyes. "If you're afraid of something, face it head on. Only by facing a fear can you ever hope to overcome it." Shoto calmly walked after Yang, leaving Izuku to take in the words he left behind. But before he could properly process them, Goodwitch called for him again, prompting him to mindlessly rush out the entrance and onto the arena floor.

Bakugo stood across from him, a confident smirk that showed his teeth spread from cheek to cheek, though his eyes and brow seemed to give off a look of pure rage. And yet...

 _Why don't I feel afraid?_

"Are both combatants ready?" Goodwitch asked the two of them. They answered by preparing their combat stances, Bakugo's arms hanging loosely at his sides while Izuku extended his arm blade and expanded his shield, his stance compact and purely reactive.

"BEGIN!"

 **(A/N: "Run Boy Run" by Woodkid)**

Bakugo shot at Izuku with a burst of smoking speed, his right fist about to knock him across the arena. At least, that's what Izuku thought would happen.

Instead, Izuku managed to deflect the blow and just barely grazed Bakugo as he passed, putting them at equal Aura once more. They circled each other slowly, as of the slightest change in pace would become an opening to decide the battle. Bakugo then stopped for a fraction of a second before rushing Izuku again, this time propelling himself off of the shield to get behind Izuku in an attempt to blast him in the back. Izuku, having activated Full Cowl at that point, ducked under the blast, and roundhouse kicked at Bakugo.

Bakugo backed off as Izuku regained his balance and took the offensive. He swung at the dire wolf with a wide arc, his shield hardly any use as he abandoned defense for offense. Seeing an opportunity in this, Bakugo dodged Izuku's wide arc and kicked him in the gut, effectively sending him skidding across the arena.

Izuku got up from the small crater his impact had made a few seconds after, only to hear Bakugo yell, "IS THAT ALL YOU GOT, DEKU?! COME ON, YA DAMN WEAKILING! GIVE ME A FUCKING CHALLENGE!"

Izuku, now realizing that he couldn't afford to hold back in this fight, in spite of what Toshinori taught him to do, compacted his shield and arm blade, switching to full offensive mode, his arms held in a combination of Yang's and Bakugo's stances.

Izuku shot forward and gave a quick jab, which Bakugo swiftly dodged. What he failed to notice was Izuku's foot behind his own, causing him to trip and open him up for Izuku's follow up, a downward piledriver punch. The blow only stopped him for a second, as he scrunched up his legs, pointed them at Izuku, and launched off of his hands, kicking Izuku in the chin, putting him on his back.

Izuku rolled to his left as Bakugo's fist embedded the space that once held his head, deciding to play it safe and backpedaled away from his opponent. Bakugo wrenched his hand out of the concrete, a sadistic smirk emerging from his fangs.

 _How am I supposed to even survive this?!_

 _"Just fight. If you're afraid of something, face it head on. Only by facing a fear can you ever hope to overcome it."_

Shoto's word rang through his mind as Bakugo charged him once more, a smoke trail left in his wake. He cocked back his fist, ready to send Izuku to the infirmary. But what he hit...

Was empty air.

Izuku had activated One for All, a bright green light emerging from his veins. The whites of his eyes were blacker than night, but his pupils were vibrant, shining emeralds. He'd moved behind Bakugo so quickly that it almost seemed as if he'd teleported.

 **"Bakugo... you've always been the strongest out of the two of us. You won every fight, every argument, every meaningless little game. Everything. I don't hate you. I looked up to you. And that's why I want to beat you! Because you _are_ amazing!"**

Izuku cocked back his right arm for a brief moment before slamming it downwards, causing a gigantic dust cloud to form as debris from the impact was flung about the place, the students protected thanks to the shield surrounding the arena. No one could see inside of it as the cloud billowed about, not even Goodwitch. When the cloud finally lifted, the arena was destroyed, a gigantic crater left in its wake. Bakugo was on the ground, knocked out cold by a piece of debris. And Izuku...

Izuku's right arm had been broken once more, large bruising and several breaks clearly visible, running all the way up to his shoulder. Izuku stepped forward, only to fall flat on his face, passing out from the pain.

Goodwitch, now over her initial shock, calmly stated the outcome of the battle. "The first match of this year...

"Is a draw."

 **(A/N: End Song)**

 _(Beacon Academy Classroom A-1, 1:16 pm, four hours later)_

Luckily for Izuku, there were only two classes on the day he and Bakugo sparred, including combat class. Speaking of, Bakugo was out cold for the entire day, due to the fact that he was knocked out due to blunt force trauma instead of pain like Izuku was. He awoke once more in the infirmary, all members from Team RWBY and JNPR, along with the other two members of his own, standing by his bedside, though Yang, Shoto, Jaune, and Ruby were the closest.

He'd managed to just barely snag lunch before rushing into the classroom about five minutes before the bell, taking a seat in between Yang and Shoto, though he minorly blushed when he saw the former.

Now for some specifics. Teams RWBY, JNPR, and STIK all had the exact same classes, with the exception of Team STIK having a different homeroom. The class they were currently in was their fifth and final class for the week, taught by the man who almost singlehandedly carved the era of peace that they were currently living under; none other than-

 **"I am here!"** All Might said as he opened the door in a rather dramatic fashion. His hunters attire was like something out of a superhero comic, and it showed. It consisted of a blue, white , and red body suit with golden gloves and boots, and a yellow belt with a silver buckle hung on his waist.

 **"Welcome to Hunter Regulation and Law! In this class, you will learn what laws you need to abide by when fulfilling your duties as a hunter, and those which you must enforce. This class will last for the entirety of your time at Beacon. Now then...**

 **"Let's Begin!"**

 **A/N: ASK MANY QUESTIONS!**

 **But seriously though, feel free to ask me about what's going on with the story.**

 **Sorry for the late chapter. I've been at my summer job a lot, so I haven't had a lot of time to write.**

 **Also, just because I feel like it:**

 **CHARACTER PROFILES! These will now be at the end of every chapter whenever a new character from HeroAca gets introduced. But for now, let's start with our main protagonist.**

 **1-Izuku Midoriya**

 **Age-17**

 **Race: Human**

 **BDay: 07/15**

 **Handedness: Right**

 **Hair: Green and Messy**

 **Eyes: Dark Green**

 **Blood Type: O**

 **Height: 5ft 8.5in / 174.27cm**

 **Gender: M**

 **Semblance: One for All, a power passed down willingly from person to person. This was given to Izuku by All Might, the most powerful huntsman to ever live. He cannot use it to its full potential however, as even trying will force him to break his own limbs. He has a way to bypass this, a technique called Full Cowl, which, ironically enough, is the name he uses as a cover. Full Cowl can allow Izuku to safely tap into 5% of One for All's full power.**

 **Weapons: Law and Order. A pair of gloves and vambraces designed to deliver severe blunt force trauma. Hidden in the vambraces are grappling hooks, which makes up for Izuku's lack of mobility, and an arm blade and shield, which will give him more options other than punching Grimm.**

 **Range: Close Combat**

 **Fighting Style: Instinctual/Basic Kickboxing**


	8. Jaundice

**A/N: These notes are becoming obsolete. Oh well. Enjoy the Chapter!**

 **Edit: (11/14/18): Not really much to change here. Just rewording a few things and getting the formatting down correctly.**

 **Disclaimer: I do not own RWBY or My Hero Academia. They belong to Monty Oum, Kohei Horikoshi, and their respective publishing companies.**

 **I do not own the cover image**

Chapter 8: Jaundice

The weeks that followed Izuku's fight with Bakugo were very talkative. At least, on his end. He'd been asked so many questions about his semblance that he thought his brain was going to implode from having to repeat his explanation over and over again. But, that was the bad part.

The good part was that 1: Bakugo had generally left Izuku alone, although he still glared at him with the same silent rage he had before their battle; but Izuku was a lot less scared of it now than he was before. 2: He'd actually managed to get a bit closer to his friends. Yang was more boisterous than ever with her puns, Shoto smiled just the slightest bit more, Ruby had been talking to him about weapon designs almost nonstop, and he and Jaune had discovered their mutual love for comic books.

Speaking of-

Jaune supported his form by putting his hands on his knees, panting as he did so. Across from him was the armored boy from Initiation, Cardin Winchester. He'd proven himself to be quite the bully these past few weeks. He'd mocked just about everyone behind their backs, tripped anyone who was vulnerable, and even sent Jaune across the school in a rocket-propelled locker. In short: a stereotype personified.

Cardin chuckled at Jaune's exhausted form, all too overconfident that he would win the fight. Jaune, seeing an opening, rushed him in a charge not too dissimilar to Izuku's when he fought Bakugo, and swung at the bully in a large, overhead arc. Cardin simply sidestepped him, and swung his mace at Jaune, causing him to lose his shield as he was flung across the arena.

Jaune seemed to only be minorly damaged by this hit, as he got back up not a second later and rushed at Cardin once more with a two-handed overhead swing, clashing with the handle of Cardin's mace. Cardin, being the stronger of the two, pushed back with relative ease, and said, "This is the part where you lose."

"Over my dead-" was all Jaune could get out in retort before Cardin kneed him in the gut, causing him to keel over in pain, dropping his sword in the process. Cardin stood above him, his mace ready to deliver a strike to bash his skull in when-

 _BRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR!_

The buzzer sounded. Goodwitch then walked past Cardin, saying, "That's enough, Mr. Winchester." before addressing the class. "As you can see here, Mr. Arc's Aura has gone into the red. Now I'm sure most of you remember this rule, but, in a tournament style duel, this would indicate that he is no longer fit for battle, and the official may end the match."

She turned to Arc and semi-whispered, "Mr. Arc, it's been weeks now. Please try to refer to your scroll during combat. Gauging your Aura will help you decide when it is safe to attack and when you need to use a more... defensive strategy. We wouldn't want you to end up as Grimm bait, now would we?"

"Speak for yourself." Cardin mocked Goodwitch under his breath as he and Jaune left the arena, the latter slightly hunched over in shame.

"You may be wondering why I restated a rule you learned at the beginning of the year. Well, the Vytal festival is only four months away, and this year, Beacon shall be hosting the entire event. It won't be long before students from other kingdoms begin arriving in Vale, so be sure to keep practicing. Those who choose to compete in the combat tournament shall be representing all of Vale."

Everyone reacted to this in their own way. Yang began to shadow box with an invisible opponent; Weiss had an unusual grin on her face; Ruby began to giddily move about in her seat, slightly squealing as she did so; while Blake kept her ever-neutral expression the same. Tenya simply smiled, telling everyone to follow Goodwitch's instructions; Bakugo hardly even cared, muttering something about killing his way to the top; and Shoto held a neutral face that nearly mimicked Blake's, only the tiniest hint of disdain seeping through. Ren had the smallest of all smirks on his lips, while Nora tried to fire off grenades in celebration, only to be stopped by Ren when he lifted her grenade launcher higher than she could reach. Maybe this was why he was smirking? Only he could know.

And Pyrrha? She didn't even acknowledge Goodwitch's announcement, opting to look at her leader in concern. Izuku didn't really know what happened between that and lunch, since he'd done small talk with everyone for the most part, but he did keep a bit of an eye on Jaune. Speaking of lunch-

"So, there we were, in the middle of the night..." Nora began as she regaled the group with another of her farfetched dream story's.

"It was day," Ren promptly corrected as he balanced a cup of tea on his palm.

"We were surrounded by Ursai..." she continued, Yang hanging off of her every word while Blake read a book, not even pretending to care. Izuku paid attention, though more so out of politeness than anything else, while Bakugo simply grumbled about kill counts.

"They were Beowolves," Ren again corrected as Tenya nodded in affirmation and Shoto went over his notes, and, like Blake, not even pretending to care.

"DOZENS OF THEM!"

"Two of them."

"But they were no match... and Ren and I made a ton of Lien selling Ursa skin rugs!"

Ren sighed before continuing, "She's been having this dream for nearly a month now."

Izuku then turned his attention to the other side of the table, where Jaune, Ruby, Pyrrha, and Weiss were all sitting, the latter filing her nails while the other two looked at Jaune with concerned faces.

"Jaune? Are you okay?" Pyrrha asked her leader. Jaune played with his food for a second before realizing that he was being addressed by her, turned and answered, "Y-yeah. Why?"

Ruby then piped in, "It's just that you seem a little... not okay."

It was at this point that Izuku decided to go to the other end of the table, leaving his team at the other end. "They're right, you know. You haven't been yourself for the past few days."

"Guys, I'm fine. Seriously. Look." Jaune gave them a shaky thumbs up, clearly emphasizing the fact that he was indeed, as Ruby aptly put it, not okay.

Their attention was then drawn by a rather horrible laugh a few tables down from them. Cardin, along with the rest of his team, were laughing at a female Faunus with rather large bunny ears.

"Jaune, Cardin has been bullying you since the first day of school."

"W-who, Cardin Winchester?"

"Yes. He's bullying another student right behind you," Shoto pointed out in his usual monotone, not looking up from his notes.

"Nah. He just likes to mess around. Ya know, practical jokes!"

"He's a bully," Ruby, Izuku, and Shoto deadpanned simultaneously.

"Oh please. Name one time he's 'bullied' me."

"Well, there was that one time in the hallway when he knocked your books out of your hands for no reason," Ruby deadpanned.

"I'm sure it was just an accident."

"Then the time when he got you stuck in the middle of a doorway with your own shield," Shoto monotoned, still not bothering to look up from his notes.

"That was my own clumsiness."

"And then the rocket locker," Izuku shivered as he remembered the incident he'd just mentioned.

"I didn't land far from the school."

"YOU LANDED IN THE MIDDLE OF THE EMERALD FOREST!" The Ruby and Izuku yelled at him, Shoto opting to stay silent after he'd made his input.

"Jaune, you know you can just ask one of us if you ever need help with anything, okay?" Pyrrha told Jaune, the two not even the slightest bit phased that Ruby and Izuku had yelled at Jaune seconds earlier.

Nora then stood up, a strange light bulb appearing above her head. How was this possible? No one knew. "OH! We'll break his legs!"

Jaune stood up with his tray in his hands and tried to calm down his friends. "Guys, its fine. Besides, it's not like he's only a jerk to me. He's a jerk to everyone."

It was at this moment that Cardin decided to pull at one of the rabbit Faunus' ears for fun, as he said to his teammates, "Ha! I told you they were real!"

"What a freak!" One of his teammates jaded at the poor girl. She struggled to get out of his grip, but couldn't break free. Then, just as Izuku stood again and began to walk over to them, someone got over there first, and it wasn't the person he expected it to be.

"Hey..." Bakugo began, an extremely dangerous tone that Izuku had come to fear during his high school years present to even the densest of people in his voice. "Would you all shut the fuck up? It's annoying as hell."

"And just who do you think you are, talking to me like tha-" Cardin never finished his sentence, and even if he did, he likely would've had his face smashed in by the dire wolf that stood just a few inches in front of him. Said faunus suddenly slammed his fist into a nearby table with the assistance of his semblance, the force of the blast combined with his strike splitting it in clean in half with a silencing **CRACK!**

 **"Did I fucking stutter?"**

Bakugo glared holes into Cardin for several seconds, the latter trying his best to not shrivel up in fear. Cardin eventually let go of the rabbit Faunus, who walked away from the table and out of the mess hall.

Bakugo then turned back to the others and said, "Do not read into that. The only reason I did that was cause the noise was pissing me off." He then stomped out of the mess hall, his mood not better than before.

"Well... that was... interesting," Pyrrha said hesitantly, not really knowing why Bakugo did what he just did.

"It seemed like he didn't even care about the girl he helped," Blake pointed out, a hint of malice contained in her voice.

 _(one week later, Bartholomew Oobleck's World History Class, 9:36 am)_

Professor Oobleck, while he was a very good teacher, was also a rather eccentric one. He had many theories on Grimm, the origin of Dust, and even correctly predicted the fallout consequences of the Faunus War. Speaking of-

"Yes yes, prior to the Faunus Civil Rights Revolution, more popularly known as the Faunus War, humankind was actually quite adamant in centralizing Faunus population in Menagerie." He explained to the class while he drank small sips of coffee from the cup he held in his hand, somehow zipping about the classroom at speeds the only Ruby could match. He continued-

"While this may seem like ancient history for many of you, you must remember that on a grand scale, these are still relatively recent events. Why, the repercussions of the uprising can still be seen to this day." He took another sip from his cup. "Now! Has anyone in this room been subjugated or discriminated against for their Faunus heritage?"

Izuku saw two students raise their hands, one of them being the rabbit Faunus that he'd seen getting bullied earlier. Bakugo made no moves to raise his hands, either out of some sort of pride he couldn't shake off or the simple fact that he didn't bother to remember. Oobleck again continued, "Dreadful! Simply dreadful! Remember students, it exactly this type of ignorance that breeds violence." Another sip from his coffee cup. "I mean, just look at what happened to the White Fang! Before their new leader rose to power, they were a peaceful group with good intentions. But thanks to the increased ignorance of discriminatory humans, they have turned to more violent methods of influence." Yet another sip from his coffee cup.

"Now, can any of you young scholars tell me what many researchers, myself included, believe to be the two major turning points in the third year of the war."

Weiss immediately raised her hand, as did Tenya, both saying in sync, "The first was The Battle of Fort Castle, and-" before meeting the other's gaze and glaring at each other, sparks practically flying between them; the intensity coming from them was simply just that high.

They were brought out of their silent argument when Oobleck continued, "Precisely! Now, who can tell me the general advantage that the Faunus had over General Lagune's forces."

It was at this moment that Cardin decided to try and flick a paper football at the back of Jaune's head, which was quickly thwarted when Izuku, his danger sense from his time with Toshinori sharper than ever thanks to his combat classes, caught the item in midair. Cardin, annoyed that his embarrassment attempt had been thwarted so easily, was about to jump on Izuku when Oobleck said, "Mr. Winchester! Perhaps you would care to share your thoughts on the subject."

Cardin, now unable to exact his revenge upon Izuku, leaned back in his seat, his feet upon the desk, and answered, "Well, I know it's easier to train an animal than a soldier."

"You aren't the most open-minded of individuals, are you, Cardin?" Pyrrha asked with hinted sarcasm.

"What, you got a problem?"

"No, I don't believe she does," Shoto interjected, annoyed at the entire situation. "And the answer is night vision. Several faunus subspecies are known to have it."

"The general made the mistake of trying to ambush the faunus on their sleep." Blake continued. "His army became outmatched and the general was captured. Perhaps if he'd paid attention in class, he wouldn't have been remembered as such a failure."

Cardin had been thoroughly enraged at that point, and rose out of his seat to give Blake a piece of his mind before-

"Mr. Winchester, please take your seat."

Cardin sat down in his seat with a huff, obviously angry at the fact that he'd been outsmarted by the three Brainiacs of the class. "You and Mr. Arc can both see me after class for additional readings."

Jaune snapped awake, not entirely aware of what had just transpired. Even so, Oobleck continued. "Now! Moving on! Which event became even more popular than the previously mentioned Battle of Fort Castle, and changed the opinions on Faunuskind for hundreds of thousands of humans?"

Izuku, having studied this part of history thoroughly, raised his hand at a speed only Ruby would go at. "Yes, Mr. Midoriya?"

"The Vale Monument Speech, made by the current Symbol of Hope, All Might, barely six months after his debut."

"Correct! The speech he made that day, more commonly known today as We are all Equals, inspired many people, Faunus and humans alike, to further support the Faunus civil rights movement. Why, if he never made the speech, the Faunus War might've still been going on at this very second! Now, as for the speech itself..."

 _(Beacon Academy Hallways, 8:33 pm)_

Izuku left the library with a satisfied look on his face. He'd just finished his research project for Professor Port an entire month before it was due. And he didn't just slap something together sloppily like some C- average jock either. Instead, the research was on the anatomy of Beowolves and why they were considered dangerous even though they were technically the weakest Grimm. I won't give you the specifics since that would take all day. Moving on!

Izuku was walking back to his dorm when a distraught looking Pyrrha crossed his path, not even looking at his as went into her own dorm room and slammed the door shut. The force of the blow was hard enough to leave cracks in the door frame.

 _What happened to make her that upset?_ Izuku wondered to himself before continuing to walk towards his dorm, stopping when he heard Bakugo and Tenya arguing... again. Deciding to play it safe, Izuku leaned against the wall, waiting for the argument to stop, when Jaune rounded the corner with an expression to the one that Pyrrha had previously worn. He didn't even stop to look at Izuku as he went to his dorm, the same one that Pyrrha had gone into.

 _And Jaune's looking even worse than Pyrrha. I hope they're okay._

Little did Izuku know what was soon to come.

 **A/N: Review to your heart's content! I love feedback and criticism (as long as it's constructive) so feel free to ask me whatever you want to know about this fic.**

 **Our next profile is Bakugo!**

 **2-Katsuki Bakugo**

 **Age: 17**

 **Race: Dire wolf Faunus**

 **BDay: 04/20**

 **Handedness: Right**

 **Hair: Ash Blond and Spiky**

 **Eyes: Red**

 **Blood Type: A**

 **Height: 5ft 10in/ 177.8cm**

 **Gender: M**

 **Semblance: Explosion, allows Bakugo to ignite the air around his hands with enough force to rival fire dust, though overuse will cause side effects since his joints and shoulders must deal with the force of the blasts.**

 **Weapon: Mortar Shell, gloves and bracelets with red and black details, the bracelets having spikes that run up the length of his forearms. The bracelets function is to actually shoot dust at a mid to close range distance, which can give him some room to retreat.**


	9. What Makes a Huntsman

**A/N: Here we are, at the end of Jaune's Arc! (pun intended) I hope you enjoy this new addition to the story. WOOHOO!**

 **Edit (11/14/18): Same deal as the last chapter: reworded a few things, got rid of all A/Ns except for song choices, and changed a few things because of altered context.**

 **Disclaimer: I do not own RWBY or My Hero Academia. They belong to Monty Oum, Kohei Horikoshi, and their respective publishing companies.**

 **I do not own the cover image**

Chapter 9: What Makes a Huntsman

Ever since the night that Izuku had seen Jaune and Pyrrha go back to their dorm with similar defeated looks on their faces, a lot had changed, and not for the better. Jaune was now hanging out with Cardin more often than not; Pyrrha wouldn't speak to Jaune at all, nor would she talk to anyone else about the split forming in her team; and RWBY and STK had been adamant to simply let JNPR ride it out on their own, not wishing to potentially make things worse by getting involved.

But for some reason, Izuku had a feeling that something was going to happen soon, and that Jaune was going to play a pivotal role within it. However, at the moment, Jaune was currently standing outside of the doorway to his dorm room, his gaze falling upon the floor as he silently closed the thin barrier between him and his team.

Izuku, being the person that he was, couldn't bear to leave his friend in this state a second time. He walked up behind Jaune and tapped him on the shoulder, briefly startling the blonde and simultaneously getting his attention.

"Hey, Jaune. Why are you just standing here? Did you get locked out again?"

"N-nope! I got it!" Jaune hastily pulled out his scroll, not really wanting to remember one of his more... embarrassing moments.

"Hey, are you alright? You've been pretty distant lately." Izuku asked Jaune, deciding to not rudely point out the fact that he'd been hanging out with Cardin an awful lot.

"I-uh..." Jaune sighed. "I messed up. I did something I shouldn't have and now, Cardin's got me on a leash, Pyrrha won't even talk to me..." Another sigh. "I'm starting to think that coming here was a bad idea." He slid down the door to his dorm room, his gaze on his lap as he finished, "I'm a failure."

Izuku looked down at Jaune for several seconds, contemplating what he should do to help him. He knew all about being labeled a failure and feeling worthless. Even so, he didn't really know much about giving people a different perspective on things like this. No one had really done the same for him before Shoto got Cardin off of his back, and even then he wasn't sure if that was the correct example to follow.

Then, his conversation from Aizawa floated through his mind. Sure, it was a fairly blunt example to follow, but maybe if he just reworded a few things here and there... it could be just what his blonde friend needed.

"So what?"

"Huh?"

"So what? You made a mistake. Everyone's made mistakes at some point or another." Izuku sat down next to him as he continued with his on the fly speech. "That's what school's about. Heck, that's what life's about. As long as you own up to your mistake and learn from it, won't you come back stronger?"

Jaune took a few seconds to process this when he hesitantly asked Izuku, "What if... I'm a failure at being a leader?"

"Then learn to be a better leader. Learn about your team, who they are, what they're like, how they'll react to certain situations; know them inside and out. You won't make nearly as many mistakes."

"But that might not be enough. I might screw up again. One of them could..."

"Thinking like that will only hinder you. You're their leader. They have faith in you. So have faith in them. But take care of yourself too. If you don't help yourself, then you won't be of any help to anyone."

"I... think I get it now. Thanks. I know what I have to do." Jaune said as he stood up his confidence back in full force.

"I-I'm just glad I could help. I don't really do the whole 'rousing speech' thing that often." _Or ever._ Izuku stood up as well, not expecting his speech to have this much of a positive effect on him.

Jaune gave him a simple smile before going into his dorm, the door shutting quietly behind him.

 _(Forever Fall Forest, 1:34 pm)_

Izuku and his team, along with Teams RWBY and JNPR, were slowly following Professor Goodwitch through the bright and vibrant landscape that was Forever Fall. The crimson leaves on the healthy branches waved in the soft breezes of the mountainside they were on. If they weren't there for a school project, it likely would've been a good vacation spot. Speaking of-

"Yes students, Forever Fall is indeed very beautiful, but we aren't here to sight-see. Professor Peach has asked us to collect sap from the trees in this forest. And we're here to make sure that none of you die while you do so." She said, pointing out that Aizawa was there as well, as backup in case something dire happened to anyone.

Aizawa continued the explanation. "Each person here must gather at least one jar's worth of red sap. If you gather more than necessary, then we'll give you extra credit for a class of your choice. But remember, the forest _is_ full of Grimm, so stay by each other. No one is to be isolated."

Goodwitch finished the explanation, though a hint of annoyance was ever present on her face. "We will rendezvous back here at four o'clock. Be careful and have fun!"

Jaune, who had been carrying the jars for the sap, set them down for everyone to take one. Cardin then grabbed him by the back of his hoodie, saying, "C'mon, buddy. Let's get going."

Jaune took one last look at his team walking into the forest, Pyrrha meeting his gaze while Ren and Nora opted to instead go into the forest early and get the assignment done ahead of time. Jaune hung his head a bit low before following Cardin and the others on his team into a different part of the forest.

Teams RWBY, NPR, and STIK on the other hand, left in the opposite direction, where the trees were healthier and more plentiful than the direction Jaune and Team CRDL had just gone down. They hammered their spigots into the trunks of the nearby trees to begin the collection process, slow as it was. Though this process was made even slower by the fact that Nora kept drinking all of the sap.

"So... what were you and Lady-killer talkin' about yesterday, Greenie?" Yang asked Izuku, her amethyst eyes clearly wanting an answer.

"W-why do you want to know?"

"Well, Ruby and I heard you talking to Jaune last night. She'd ask you herself, but... she doesn't really know the meaning of subtlety."

Izuku blushed the slightest little bit while he explained what Jaune had told him the other night, though not from revealing his friend's reasoning. Over the last two months, it seemed as though whenever he got close to the blonde brawler, his heart would skip a beat or two, and blood would rush en masse towards his face. _Seriously! It's been two whole months! What the hell is wrong with me?!_

"So that's what's been going on with him. Huh. No wonder he's been hanging out with Cardin so much."

"Yeah. I just hope I gave him the advice he needed. I'm not really good at social stuff."

"We'll know soon enough. But you did the right thing by trying. So don't worry about it so much. Lady-killer will make the right choice. I hope."

 _(Forever Fall, cliffside, 2:35 pm)_

Team CRDL and Jaune overlooked Teams RWBY, NPR, and STIK s they collected sap, though for what reason Jaune did not currently know. Fearing what might befall his friends, he inquired with Cardin, "What's going on?"

Cardin only looked downwards at the other teams as he simply stated in a hateful tone, "Payback."

Jaune looked down again and spotted the members Cardin was glaring at in rage as they collected the remaining sap. "Pyrrha and Shoto? What're you going to-"

But Cardin didn't even hear him as he continued to monologue, "There they are. The red-head and the half and half. Think they're so smart."

Cardin pulled out a cardboard box with the letter W in black sharpie. Loud buzzing sounds could be heard coming from the box as Cardin continued. "Alright, boys. Last night, I managed to round up a box full of rapier wasps. And now, we're gonna put them to work. Now, according to one of the essays he wrote for me last week, these nasty things absolutely looove sweets. I think it's about time those two learned a few things."

Cardin then shoved two jars of red sap into Jaune's hands. "And you're gonna do it."

"Do what?"

"Hit them with the sap! Either that, or I'll be having a looong talk with Ozpin. And you'll be on the first airship out of Beacon."

Jaune looked at the jar of red sap in his hands as he weighed his options. On the one hand, he'd be able to stay at Beacon, but his friends would more than likely hate him for the rest of their time there. On the other, he could simply refuse to do it, getting himself expelled in the process. But...

 _"They have faith in you. So have faith in them."_

Jaune looked back on Izuku's words, gripping the jar in remembrance. "No." He firmly said to Cardin, his resolve now firm.

"What was that?" Cardin asked in a menacing voice dripping with malice.

 **"I..."** Jaune gripped the jar with such a force that it began to crack.

 **"...said..."** his eyes began to glow a deep sapphire blue, though he himself did not know of this effect.

 **"...NO!"** Jaune spun around and threw the jar of sap at Cardin, shattering on the boy's breastplate whilst also sending him back at least fifty feet. Jaune, startled by his own power, seemingly shrunk back in realization of what he had just done.

"You just made the biggest mistake of your life."

 _(meanwhile, with Izuku and co.)_

"So... why does Mr. Mcsplodysplode always call you Deku?"

Izuku spat out the water he was drinking in surprise. No one had really brought the topic, and he expected it to be brought up eventually, but not _this_ abruptly!

He sobered himself and hesitantly stated the meaning of the name. "It's... it's an insult. If you read my name in old Mistralian, it translates to 'Useless.'"

Yang was silent for several seconds, her eyes briefly shifting from their normal amethyst to becoming redder than Ruby's namesake. But she quickly calmed herself, and instead have an encouraging smile, saying, "Well then, maybe they should change the definition of the word. It doesn't really sound like that at all. It actually kind of gives off a 'You can do it!' vibe!"

Yang didn't seem to notice, but Izuku was taking the words she said to heart. _My name doesn't have to mean useless…_

Any further conversation was interrupted she Cardin's team came barreling through the foliage. When they asked what was wrong, they simply yelled that an Ursa Major had attacked them and that Jaune and Cardin were still fighting it.

Izuku, now briefed on the situation, sped off in the direction that Cardin's team had just run from. Ruby, Weiss, Pyrrha, and Shoto were right on his heels as they all rushed up the cliff, and were shocked to see Cardin cowering behind Jayne whilst the blonde knight fought the beast on his own.

 **(A/N: "Awakening" by Taylor Davis)**

Weiss slipped into a battle stance when Jaune struggled to hold back one of the Ursa's stronger blows with Crocea Mors' shield, but was quickly stopped by Pyrrha, who urged the white-haired heiress to wait. As if she was somehow predicting the future, Jaune shifted the Ursa's paw to glance off of his shield while he came around the length of its arm and gave it a quick slash, which was enough to push it back a few feet.

It quickly retaliated with a wild jab, which Jaune skillfully dodged, barely avoiding his earlier fate of becoming a bloodstain on the ground the Ursa had embedded its claw in. It quickly swept at Jaune's feet with its free claw, causing him to jump into the air to avoid being taken to the ground. It then wrenched its other claw free from the earth, catching Jaune off guard as it backhanded him across their battlefield.

He wasn't incapacitated, however, and charged once more at the Grimm with a jumping overhand slash, only for the Ursa to sidestep it and hit him in the back. The blow sent Jaune spiraling across the battlefield, hitting the ground twice before he managed to pick himself up. He quickly checked his scroll that he'd attached to the backside of his shield before the battle, showcasing the fact that his Aura was just at the starting point of the red.

His focus shifted to the Ursa once more as it lumbered towards him, roaring in assumed victory. The two rushed towards each other in one final clash to decide the victor. Time seemed to slow around Izuku as he felt something begin to come from within Jaune. It was almost like a hidden strength, choosing to now reveal itself to the world.

Almost as if by pure instinct, Izuku grabbed Pyrrha's outstretched hand before she could activate her semblance. She shot him a look of surprise before he said, "He'll be fine."

Jaune's eyes began to glow a bright, azure blue once more, power emanating from his entire body before taking shape as a pair of ghostly arms covered in armor wielding a longsword meant for only a giant to use. The sword slashed through the Ursa's outstretched arm, cutting it off with practiced ease, and followed Jaune's next stroke towards the Ursa's unguarded head. It split through the Grimm's flesh with no effort, sending the head across the clearing and into the forest, and for good measure, brought its blade down upon the still upright Grimm's body, splitting it clean in half before it, and the arms that wielded the mighty weapon, disappeared entirely.

Jaune panted for several seconds before standing up straight once more, sheathing his sword and shield. He looked at his hands as they faintly glowed with his aura before once more fading away. But that wasn't what he was concerned with at that moment. He'd activated his semblance. He'd won the battle. And he did it with his own strength.

He let out a victory cry loud enough to rival the Ursa Major's roar. Jaune didn't care if the whole world heard him. He'd won. He wasn't worthless. He wasn't a coward. He wasn't afraid anymore.

He was a huntsman.

 **(A/N: End Song)**

Pyrrha and the others looked upon the clearing in shock at Jaune's sudden power. Even Shoto, though he didn't exactly show it, was clearly impressed by the display of Jaune's Semblance.

"How..." Ruby began before trailing off into an incohesive mess of words.

"What in the world?" Weiss asked to seemingly everyone before Izuku muttered, "I could've sworn I saw something like this once before..."

He began digging around in his backpack for one of his journals before resurfacing with 'Huntsman Notes #9,' exclaiming, "FOUND IT!"

Izuku then flipped through the pages of his Journal before he came across the entry he was looking for. "This semblance is a hereditary one, and it's been used throughout the Arc family for generations. It's called Fable, and lets the user summon a ghostly warrior to their side and fight alongside them, and each user of Fable has their own warrior. The last person to publically use this semblance was Braun Arc, formerly one of the Big Four before he retired a few years ago, and was almost as well loved as All Might is today. There are rarely any repeats, though that has happened once or twice."

"Yeah, dad always did say that."

Everyone there snapped their heads towards Jaune, who had just gotten back from a brief exchange with Cardin. "His... Fable was called Gawain. It was the strongest Fable to have ever been produced since the original. At least, that's what everyone says."

"Well, what's you Fable's name?" Shoto voiced the question everyone had on their minds.

Jaune closed his eyes he went into deep thought, as if searching himself for the proper answer. Several seconds later, his eyes fluttered open, and he answered, "Lancelot. He calls himself Lancelot."

"Wait, you can talk to it?!" Ruby exclaimed.

"Not... exactly. The only thing it really said to me was 'Call me Lancelot,' and then he just up and vanished. Anyway, now that that's been dealt with... Pyrrha, I need to talk to you about something later. Is that alright?"

Pyrrha blushed ever the slightest bit before answering with, "Of course."

They then began their way back to the school, Jaune's Semblance now revealed and a long explanation to Goodwitch now awaiting them.

 **A/N: Hello everyone! Thank you for all of your feedback and support! It really means the world to me! When I started this story, I only had about 300 views total. Now the total views are over 5,000! I honestly never thought I'd ever get this lucky. Thank you all for everything you've done thus far, and I hope to continue to rely on your support. And now, the profiles.**

 **It'll be a bit unorthodox today, as I will be covering a RWBY character as well as a HeroAca character. This won't happen very often, just when I decide to veer off from the canon. Without further ado, here they are:**

 **3-Shoto Todoroki**

 **Age: 17**

 **Race: Human**

 **BDay: 01/11**

 **Handedness: Ambidextrous**

 **Hair: White (right side) and Red (left side)**

 **Eyes: Gray (right side) and Blue (left side)**

 **Blood Type: O**

 **Height: 5' 11"/ 181.63 cm**

 **Gender: M**

 **Semblance: Frozen Hell, grants Shoto complete control over both fire and ice, although he tends to use the former more often than not. Ice is controlled with the right side of his body, while fire is controlled with his left.**

 **Weapons: Jotunheim and Muspelheim, a pair of sabers the use of ice and fire dust respectively. Jotunheim hangs on Shoto's left hip, with a silver guard, blue tinted blade, and a white sheath with a few nicks along the length, implying use. Muspelheim hangs on Shoto's right hip, with a golden guard, a red-tinted blade, and a black sheath completely clean of battle scars, implying rarity of usage.**

 **Jaune Arc**

 **Age: 17**

 **Handedness: Right**

 **Hair: Blonde and oddly messy**

 **Eyes: Sapphire blue**

 **Blood Type: A**

 **Height: 6' 1"/ 185 cm**

 **Gender: M**

 **Semblance: Fable, a hereditary semblance passed down through the Arc family that allows the user to summon a ghostly warrior to fight by their side. Jaune's is named Lancelot, and though as of this time he can only summon the arms and the sword, it is still a powerful semblance to contend with.**

 **Weapons: Crocea Mors, a sword and shield combo that's basically a family heirloom, they have no special functions other than the shield having the ability to turn itself into the sheath. They're basic, but they get the job done.**


	10. The Huntsman Hunter and The Stray

**A/N: Here we are, at the end of Volume 1. It's only gonna get better from here! Thank you all for your overwhelming support! I will continue to try and meet your expectations! (although I know some of you may silently judge me) Enjoy the Chapter! This one's for you guys!**

 **Sorry this took a little longer than usual. I wanted to get Volume 1 out of the way as soon as possible so that I could have a little more flexibility with the story. Thank you for your patience.**

 **Edit (11/18/18): Got rid of the mid-chapter A/Ns. I'm pretty sure that's what a lot of these things are going to devolve into other than a few rewordings, huh?**

 **Review Responses:**

 **Guest: I know, but the name sounds cooler and it was the first thing that came to my head when I was trying write his name, and you have to admit, it does sound a little cooler than just plain old Yagi.**

 **Disclaimer: I do not own RWBY or My Hero Academia. They belong to Monty Oum, Kohei Horikoshi, and their respective publishing companies. Please support the official releases.**

 **I do not own the cover image**

Chapter 10: The Huntsman Hunter and The Stray

Preparations for the Vytal Festival were coming along extremely well, in spite of the numerous robberies that had been plaguing Vale for the past few months. Several flag lines dotted the streets, balloons were hung from various balconies and edges, and even the people themselves were happier than they normally would be. Speaking of happiness...

"The Vytal Festival! Oh, this is absolutely wonderful!"

Weiss seemed a bit... too happy. Especially for her. Team RWBY was here to "Welcome the Exchange Students," as the aforementioned heiress called it. Izuku and Tenya had only been dragged along because Bakugo was getting low on ammo and Shoto needed fresh ice dust. The reason they weren't here was that they had a joint project that was due the next week, and this was the only weekend they had available. They didn't have much left to do, but hey, better safe than sorry. Back to the present...

"I don't think I've ever seen you smile this much before, Weiss. It's kinda weirding me out." Ruby commented on Weiss' unusual giddiness.

"Yeah. You never smile. Ever." Izuku awkwardly chipped in before pacing behind Tenya, knowing full well the unhinged wrath of the white-haired heiress after the accident in Dust class just a few days prior. She wasn't quite over it.

"Greenie's got a point there, Ice Queen." Yang picked up on what Izuku was trying to say. "You only ever smile when you're studying. Or lecturing us on etiquette. Or both."

Weiss snapped around at speeds Ruby was shocked to see, saying, "First of all, don't call me that! Secondly, how could you not smile? This is a festival dedicated to the cultures of the world! There are going to be dances, parades, a tournament! Oh, the amount of planning and organization that goes into this event is absolutely breathtaking!"

"Indeed! The amount of cooperation and agreements that take place during this time of year is simply astounding! It's wonderful to see nations that don't often agree with one another come together like this in a time of peace." Tanya said, eager to pitch in his own thoughts on the festival.

Yang sighed. "You two really know how to take a good thing and make it sound incredibly boring."

"Quiet you." Tenya and Weiss synched.

Izuku and Tenya split off from team RWBY soon after this, opting to go to the nearby Dust shop while they "welcome the exchange students to Beacon," as Weiss had put it, though Izuku thought that it was more than likely to spy on them for weaknesses.

They soon came upon the Dust shop they were looking for, but instead found it looking as though a tornado had torn right through it. Caution tape was all around the entrance, confirming Izuku's suspicion that the place had likely been robbed. He, Tenya, and unsurprisingly Team RWBY, went over to the two detectives who were gathering evidence from the scene. Ruby was the first to speak, asking them, "What happened here?"

"Robbery." The bearded man answered. "Fifth shop to be hit this month. This place is starting to turn into a jungle."

"What did they steal?" Izuku asked, wondering why someone would leave any place in shambles to the extent this building had been.

The second detective spoke this time, the one with unkempt hair. "That's just it, they didn't take any of the money. It's all there, wasn't even touched."

"It just doesn't make any kind of sense. I mean, who on Remnant would need that much Dust?"

"Probably an army."

"You thinkin' the White Fang?"

"Either them or Torchwick. I'm also thinking we don't get paid nearly enough to deal with this crap."

Weiss scoffed when she heard the White Yang mentioned, saying, "The White Fang. What an awful bunch of degenerates."

Blake then surprised everyone when she began arguing with Weiss. "What's your problem?"

"I simply don't care for the criminally insane," the white-haired girl responded.

It was at this time that Izuku and Tenya left the group to search for another Dust shop in the area, after promptly saying goodbye to Ruby and Yang.

"So, Tenya... are you at all related to Ingenium?" Izuku asked, not really having another topic of conversation at that moment. "You seem to have the same semblance that he did."

"I am indeed," Tenya answered, his voice full of pride. "Our family have been proud huntsmen for four generations. Our hereditary semblance, Overdrive, is a speed semblance so great in power that the first to use it was rumored to travel at speeds beyond comprehension. I am the next in line to take up the mantle of Ingenium."

Not a millisecond later, they heard a bloodcurdling scream, startling them for only the slightest moment before they raced off towards the direction of the voice the moment they heard it, as quickly as they could. The two ducked into the ally from which the scream had emerged, and upon entering, saw a harrowing sight.

A man was pressed against the wall, his body covered in blood. His apparel gave away instantly that he was a huntsman, but his weapon had been tossed from his reach. But that was not what terrified Izuku.

The one who stood over the man was tall, his disheveled black hair waving behind him. His forehead and eyes were covered with a white bandage, with eye holes cut through it so that he could see properly. He was draped in a black sleeveless shirt, dark baggy pants, and black boots with plating covering various pieces, all the way up to the knees, and several knives hanging off of the vest he wore over the shirt. A tattered red scarf the length of his hair hung around his neck, trailing downwards to the small of his back. In his right hand was a long and bloodied katana with a rough and worn edge, and an angular combat knife that was currently digging into the wounded huntsman's shoulder. The attacker was flat faced, his faunus heritage given away by the slightest hint of the slits he had for nose holes.

The man raised his katana, preparing to stab the man clean through the chest when, before Izuku could react, Tenya had had already extended his Qiang and flung himself at the attacker, his gaze hardened and his spear aiming to skewer him through. The attacker saw this coming, dodging the thrust Tenya had made, freeing his knife from the wounded huntsman's shoulder simultaneously.

Tenya swung his spear at the attacker again in an overhead arc, and the attacker dodged again, this time counter-attacking with a straight jab along the spear length, hitting Tenya straight in the chin. The blow knocked the spear-wielding boy off balance, giving the attacker an opening to put his knife to Tenya's throat.

"You seem much like that Ingenium character I fought a few years back. One of my first targets. Are you their relative?" The attacker asked in an oddly calm voice.

Tenya was having none of it, opting to remain silent as he headbutted the attacker, causing the man's knife to draw the tiniest bit of blood from his neck. Tenya then spun his spear above his head and stopped with the point angled downwards, straight at the attacker. He began to thrust his spear down, wishing the man in his sight to be long dead once and for all, when suddenly...

He could no longer move.

The man finished licking Tenya's blood from his knife, the calm expression he wore never once leaving his face. "You really are his relative. That was the same move he used on me when we fought. Damn near ran me thro-"

The man never finished his sentence, since it was at that moment that Izuku decided to jump into the fray, starting by giving the attacker's face a right hook with Full Cowl activated, sending him back a few feet. It wasn't enough to knock him out, as the attacker retaliated with a wide swing from his katana, grazing Izuku's left cheek.

Izuku cocked his left fist back, ready to dole out a retaliation of his own. But suddenly, just as Tenya had, he stopped moving. It felt as if his own blood was fighting to keep him in place. Then, the attacker did something neither of them expected.

He sheathed his blades.

"You two have the potential to become true huntsmen. Especially you, green hair." The man looked at Izuku as he said that. "But remember this. A huntsman must be willing to lose up everything, even their own lives, for the sake of someone else. Anyone who does this job for the money is worth less than garbage."

Then, before the man could leave, someone else dashed into the alley and slammed their fists into the ground where the attacker once stood, as he'd dodged the attack, and gave the man a fierce snarl. "Get the hell away from them, you crazy bastard!"

"I was just leaving. I don't kill those with potential. Especially not children."

The man then ran up the walls of the alley and onto the rooftops, making a clean getaway once more. Izuku and Tenya were then released from the confinements that their own bodies had provided, falling to the pavement in exhaustion.

The boy who'd rushed into the alley then ran over to the paralyzed duo and helped them up, asking, "Are you both okay?"

He was tall and slightly tanned, with red hair that seemed only the slightest bit less spiky than Bakugo's, and eyes the same color and hue as his hair. His mouth, though only slightly opened, showed some very sharp and prominent fangs, giving away his faunus heritage, though the small, rounded tips of his ears were more obvious. He wore a black vest with red buttons undone, showing his torso in its entirety, and red metal gauntlets that went about halfway up his forearms. He also wore baggy grey pants and brown combat boots to complete the outfit.

Though his mind was still the tiniest bit hazy, he managed to say to the boy who'd saved them, "Yeah, we're okay. Did you call an ambulance?"

"First thing I did."

"Thank you..."

"Eijirou Kirishima. Pleasure to meet you." He held out his hand, obviously expecting Izuku to shake it. The latter, now realizing what the former was trying to do, gripped the hand as firmly as he could, though he couldn't quite avoid Kirishima's death grip of a handshake. Izuku the offered his own name in kind. "Izuku Midoriya."

Now acquainted, the two turned to Tenya, whose gaze had yet to leave the place they'd last seen the man who'd attacked the huntsman, the latter of whom Kirishima had decided needed as much first aid as he could remember. Izuku, now able to be concerned about his teammate, walked over to the spectacled boy, and asked, "Tenya, what did that guy mean when he said that? Do you know him?"

Tenya was silent for several seconds, so fragile a pin falling could've broken it, yet also so thick you'd need a chainsaw to get through it. Then he slowly answered, "That man is Chizome Akaguro, more famously known by his codename, the Huntsman Hunter Stain."

Tenya then looked back at Izuku and finished his answer with his voice and eyes full of pure malice. "And he killed my brother."

 _(Beacon Academy, 8:35 pm, Team STIK's dorm room)_

The ambulance had arrived on the scene not one minute after Tenya had said those words. When Izuku asked whether or not he could elaborate on them, he simply replied that they had to wait until they got back to their dorm room, he didn't want Shoto and Bakugo to be out of the loop. They took Kirishima with them as they continued to look for a dust shop until they'd managed to find one and get what they needed. They then boarded the airship back to Vale and showed Kirishima to the exchange student dorm.

And so, here they were, in their team dorm room with Shoto leaning against one of the walls, Bakugo sitting on his bed trying to look disinterested, Izuku on one of their desk chairs, and Tenya in front of all of them on his chair, completely straight and composed, though a somber expression was worn on his face.

"I hoped that I would never have to tell anyone here any of this. It was supposed to be my burden, and mine alone." Tenya began, hesitation clear in his voice. "As I told Izuku earlier, I am the next in line to take up the Ingenium mantle. My brother was the one who came before me. He was my idol. He wore the Ingenium mantle with pride, he earned the title he bore ten times over every day. He helped so many people. And then..."

Tenya stopped, obviously digging through some very painful memories that he did not wish to revisit. Shoto and Izuku realized this, the former saying, "You don't have to share the rest if you don't want to. We'll understand."

Izuku then continued, "I know full well how difficult to relive certain memories can be. You can stop if you need to."

"No. No, you deserve to know what happened next. I've shared this much, it's only fair that I share the rest." Tenya insisted, full determined to power through his own fear of reliving that painful day.

"It was just a normal day when it happened. Just a few pickpockets, nothing more. And then, there was a battle. It tore up an entire city block in Mistral. They only fully repaired the damage last year. But my brother... he did not survive the fight. And even if he had managed to do that, he wouldn't have been able to walk. There was almost nothing left when the police and other huntsmen recovered his body. That was how that man received his codename. He almost left nothing behind but a bloodstain.

"In truth, I didn't come here solely to learn how to be a huntsman. Actually, now that I think about it, attending this school had always been a secondary goal. The reason I came to Vale, and the reason that I came to Beacon...

"…was to hunt down my brother's killer and avenge him."

Silence enveloped the room in its entirety. Izuku and Shoto were entirely silent, both from the shock of learning Tenya's true goal. He hadn't come here to learn. He'd come here to kill someone.

Then, surprising everyone, Bakugo broke the silence.

"Are you so idiotically optimistic that you thought you'd be able to take on one of the most dangerous people in the world for a case as petty as revenge?"

Tenya's head snapped towards Bakugo, ready to retort when the dire wolf faunus continued. "Look, I'm not saying that wanting revenge is a bad thing. If you think this guy deserves what you've got planned for him, then that's your deal. But let me put this into perspective for you.

"This guy has probably been killing huntsmen for as long as we've been out of elementary school. And if he was strong enough to take down someone like the previous Ingenium, he's probably not someone to take lightly, let alone someone to try and take down by yourself. You've got a team to back you up, so ask us for help when you need it, four eyes."

Izuku, Shoto, and Tenya all looked at Bakugo in complete shock, and all inadvertently thought the exact same thing at the exact same time. _Holy crap! Did Bakugo just give a pep talk?!_

"What's with those expressions?" Bakugo asked, oblivious to how out of character he'd just acted.

Shoto answered first. "We just never expected you to give a lecture on the importance of teamwork."

Tenya then chipped in, "Or to take precautions."

Izuku did not so much answer, as he nodded along with the others answers, opting to not give Bakugo a reason to blow him up. Again.

Bakugo reacted just the way anyone who knew him would expect him to. "SHUT UP! I'M ALWAYS LIKE THIS!"

 _And he's back to normal._

With that out of the way, Izuku once more turned to his spectacled teammate, saying, "Losing a family member is hard; believe me, I know the feeling all too well. But you can't go after this guy on your own, or you won't live to tell the tale. If you're not going to stop in this pursuit, then at least let us help you."

Shoto then took over. "I don't condone killing for any reason. I will help you, but to do that, this man must be put behind bars, not slain in an alleyway. If we are to become huntsmen, we cannot become worse than our prey."

Bakugo chipped in his own opinion, but really only because he didn't want to feel left out a second time. "If you decide to go after this guy on your own again, I'll drag your dumb ass back here myself, got it?"

Tenya looked at his teammates in shock, obviously expecting any kind of reaction other than this. "This is... well, quite frankly, I didn't expect any of you to just be this accepting of my true goal. Especially you, Bakugo."

"I still want to kick your perfect teeth in, if that's what you're wondering."

"Point taken."

The three were then interrupted when a knock came from their door, prompting any further conversation to be silenced. Izuku walked over to the door, opening it to find Ruby, Yang, and Weiss standing in front of their doorway. The former two looking rather distraught about something while the latter looked as though she could care less.

"What's up? Is something wrong? And where's Blake?" Izuku asked right out of the gate, immediately noticing that the bow earing girl was not among them at the moment.

Ruby and co. then walked into the room, saying, "That's just it. Blake ran away. I tried going after her, but by the time I got to the courtyard, she was already gone. We have no idea where she is, and we're really worried about her."

"Hmph." The heiress turned her head upwards in a common position the most people would've associated with rich people when they felt disgusted.

"Well, most of us are," Yang commented on Weiss' rather rude gesture.

"Did this have anything to do with the argument that started back when we were down in Vale?" Tenya asked, connecting this argument to the one that had begun near the torn apart Dust shop.

"Yeah." Ruby continued. "The fight got out of control, and the next thing we know, Blake's out the window and vanishing into thin air. We were planning on going into town tomorrow to look for her, but we're going to need some help in order to do that. Would you be willing?"

"We really can't do this on our own, guys. It would be a really big help to us if you could." Yang asked, seeming humbler than she'd ever been before.

Izuku was the first to agree. "I don't really know her all that well, but any friend of yours is a friend of mine."

Shoto came next. "Well, if my partner's agreeing to it, I've gotta come along to make sure he doesn't get himself killed doing something ironically heroic."

Tenya too agreed. "I should come as well. You'll be without a backup sniper if I don't come with you."

Silence fell upon the room as all eyes fell on Bakugo as he contemplated his answer. Then, he spoke. "Well, someone's gotta be there to pull your asses out of the fire when this all goes to hell. Alright, I'll help you get your little kitty cat back."

Everyone other than Shoto looked at him in confusion, and Izuku, though very hesitantly, asked the question currently weighing on everyone's minds. "W-w-what do you mean by that?"

"I'm a fucking dire wolf faunus, Deku," Bakugo answered rather rudely, as he was used to doing. "If I wasn't able to smell whether or not someone's another faunus, I'd be an old man."

"Wait, Blake's not a faunus though," Yang tried to reason. "She wears... a... bow..."

Yang facepalmed, as did just about everyone else in the room, not including Shoto or Tenya, the former somehow already knowing whilst the latter was _extremely_ well composed. Ruby then broke the extremely long and awkward silence when she said, "She does like tuna a lot."

 _(the streets of Vale, 3:37 pm, two days later)_

The morning after the discussion about Blake, Izuku's first thought after eating breakfast was to get Team JNPR involved, seeing as they needed another Team's worth of eyes to scour the entire city of Vale in only a day. They decided to split Team JNPR by partners and have them accompany one of the respective teams looking for Blake, leaving Ren and Nora with RWBY, and Jaune and Pyrrha with STIK.

The groups had stayed this way for the past two days as they looked throughout the city with little luck. At the moment, Tenya and Bakugo were in the front of the group, arguing and discussing battle strategy at the same time whilst Izuku, Shoto, Pyrrha, and Jaune remained near the middle, talking about various things as the day went by. Just like the day before, they had little luck in finding the bow wearing faunus. And then...

Jaune's Fable began talking to them.

 _ **"Is it not about high time that I revealed myself, Master?"**_

Shoto and Izuku were so surprised that they whipped their heads around to where the voice had originated, and were surprised to see that it was actually the blonde knight who'd decided to help them in their search for Blake, as he responded to the voice, "Well, they were going to find out eventually."

"W-w-wait, was that Lancelot we just heard?!"

"That is extremely creepy."

"Yes, I know," Pyrrha answered, obviously the better of the two present to explain this. "I felt the same when I first heard his voice. Apparently, only people with large Auras can hear Lancelot other than the user themselves, or if they have a Fable of their own."

 _ **"The champion is indeed correct. You both have extremely large Auras, almost enough to rival my Master's."**_

"I already told you twenty times to stop calling me that. Just Jaune is fine."

 _ **"Very well then, Master Jaune."**_

"Adding my name to the end of that only makes things more awkward for me."

 _ **"Then I shall simply stick with Master."**_

"I think Lancelot's toying with him," Izuku whispered to Shoto.

"Well, he _is_ basically a spirit that can only see the world through Jaune's eyes. Maybe this is what he does to amuse himself." Shoto whispered back.

"HEY! MOVE IT OR LOSE IT! WE CAN'T WAIT AROUND FOR YOU ALL DAY!" Bakugo impatiently yelled at them, his aura not large enough to hear the being they were currently conversing with.

Now realizing that they were falling behind, the four caught up to Tenya and Bakugo, once more continuing their search for their enigma of a friend.

 _(the streets of Vale, 8:56 pm, the same day)_

When they first saw the pillar of smoke rising above the area of the docks, they'd just met up with Ruby and her tagalong, who had short, rather curly orange hair with a small ahoge on top that came down to her chin, and she wore a pink bow on the back of her head. She also had bright green eyes, light skin, and freckles. She wore a whitish-gray old-fashioned blouse with short gray feminine overalls, as well as a black and green collar with a matching pair of stockings. The green lines on the side of her stockings also appear to glow at times. She had what appeared to be a small and thin backpack on her back, completing the oddly cheery girl's outfit.

It was off in the distance, but it was as large as Beacon Tower and as thick as an office building. After very briefly being introduced to the oddly bubbly girl, who identified herself as Penny, they ran off towards the towering signal of trouble, and not a moment too soon either. As soon as they got there, they found a blonde monkey faunus being held at gunpoint by none other than Roman Torchwick himself, gun-cane he carried aiming its barrel straight at the boy's head. Blake had been pushed behind a large crate, obviously looking for an opportunity to strike the crime lord down.

But of course, as she usually did, Ruby took the high ground and revealed herself almost immediately. "Hey!" The young huntress in training yelled at the man below her, drawing his attention and promptly taking his cane's sights off of the faunus on the ground beneath him, giving the blonde monkey plenty of room to slip away unnoticed.

"Oh, hello Red! Isn't it past your bedtime?" Roman taunted her, though the only effect it really had was for her to grip Crescent Rose the slightest bit tighter.

"Do you two know each other?" Izuku asked.

"'Know ' is relative. I got caught up in the middle of one of his heists, beat the crap out of his goons, but he still got away. You could almost say that he's the reason I'm at Beacon."

"Ruby?" Penny asked out of the blue, and for whatever reason still there. "Are those people your friends?"

"Penny stay back!" Was all Ruby managed to say before Roman took his cane and shot a blazing red flare at the hooded huntress, causing an explosion that knocked the girl clean off of her feet. Luckily, Tenya and Jaune had been just behind Ruby, who caught her before she hit her head on the rooftop, though she was still dazed by the blast.

Penny looked at Roman with anger as the man cackled in the most stereotypical way you could ever expect a criminal to laugh. The orange haired girl the stepped onto the edge of the rooftop, only stopping when the others there with her asked what she was doing.

The girl merely glanced back at them with a slight smile, saying, "Don't worry, Ruby and Ruby's friends whose names I cannot recall at this time. I'm combat ready!"

As she finished, she turned once more to Torchwick, and, as if by magic, her backpack opened up. From it came a single-edged sword with an oddly shaped edge, which flipped open to its full length as it floated in midair. The bronze guard held the emblem of a power button in green neon, and the hilt seemed to form from some sort of piping that extended from the guard. But that wasn't what amazed them.

What amazed them was when the girl's sword split from one to ten in an instant, and she used them as wings as she floated downwards toward all of the White Fang grunts that had occupied the space during her preparation time. Needless to say that she absolutely destroyed them. Trying to put the battle to words would take several minutes too many knocked out grunts.

As Penny fought, Ruby, Izuku, and Teams STK and JP watched in amazement, making small comments while she did so.

"Holy crap! She just took out all of those goons in six moves!" Izuku exclaimed, obviously enamored with her unusual style of swordplay. If you could call it that.

"Indeed. She'll be quite the formidable opponent during the tournament." Shoto said, his gaze only giving away the slightest hint of enjoyment.

"Oh, hell yeah! I can't wait to crush her in a fair fight!" Bakugo said, slamming his fist into his palm, giving away his eagerness to battle the girl, as well as causing most of the people there to sweat-drop.

"She just took down two Bullheads by herself. I'll say this right now: she's leagues above us in both skill _and_ power." Tenya commented on Bakugo's earlier statement, though the blonde dire wolf didn't really seem to care at the moment, opting to instead watch the ongoing fight in uninterrupted enjoyment.

"Do you think she's at your level, Pyrrha?" Jaune asked as Penny began to destroy yet another Bullhead while it tried to take off with a shipping crate of Dust.

"Maybe. Maybe not. At this point, only an actual fight would determine an answer to that question." Pyrrha answered as Penny pulled the bullhead down to the ground, slamming it into the nearby stack of shipping crates full of Dust, causing the entire shipment to explode.

"Either way, that was so freakin' cool!" Ruby shouted in excitement.

Roman, however, did not run. In fact, he simply pulled out his Scroll and dialed someone. He finished the call only a few seconds after he made it, and stood there with his cane in his hands, waiting for something. Then it happened.

Something akin to a black vortex appeared next to him.

And from this vortex came crooks. Each with quirks and semblances. Several dozen made their way onto the dock, each more intimidating than the last. And then, the main players came onto the stage.

One was a young man who seemed to be not much older than twenty, but had gray hair instead of a normal hue. He wore a simple black shirt and gray pants with blood red boots to complete the outfit. There were hands just about everywhere on his arms and shoulders, and there were even some on the back of his head, whilst only one of the hands obscured his face from view.

The next was the vapor itself given physical form, with a dark violet outline and a pair of burning yellow coals for eyes, a set of five metal plates being the only thing akin to clothing he wore.

And finally, something else emerged from the portal. Something terrifying. It was as large as All Might with a similar muscular structure, with scars covering its entire body. Bone plating covered spots of its skin, particularly near the elbow's and kneecaps, and a white bone half mask that outlined its gaping jaw, leaving its brain exposed. It looked like a humanoid Grimm.

There weren't supposed to be any humanoid Grimm this close in anatomy to an actual human or faunus.

However, before the group had the chance to fully process this fact, the gray-haired man yelled to his underlings, "Wreak havoc upon the hunters, and don't hesitate to kill them all!"

Then the bullets came flying towards them like a storm, just barely missing them as they jumped off of the roof's edge to avoid dying. Though the bullets still flew at them, Jaune, Pyrrha, and Izuku stood at the forefront, their shields blocking the deadly rain and their blades drawn to bare. Tenya and Ruby stood behind them, returning fire to their attackers with their own firearms.

Shoto and Bakugo took a direct offensive, taking out various grunts in the front of the criminal's offensive, Shoto using Jotunheim to immobilize and knock out his opponents, whilst Bakugo took to the approach of beating his opponents till they either couldn't move or got knocked out, as well as using Mortar Shell's guns when he needed to retreat or use an explosion/bullet powered punch. Which he did. A lot.

There were many broken bones that night, and none of them were his.

It was at this time that Weiss and Yang _finally_ showed up, the latter grinning in pure glee as she joined the battle, yelling, "Finally, I can blow off some steam!" before she began smashing her way through the various goons that had swarmed the section that Ruby and Izuku's group hadn't been able to clear

The white-haired heiress opted to do the opposite, remaining silent as she leapt into battle after her boisterous teammate, stabbing her rapier into the ground, causing ice glyphs to appear under many a crook as they were frozen into place by Weiss' Dust.

Ren and Nora, the latter of whom had somehow managed to get them on the lifting tower, jumped off and into the fray, Nora with a grenade powered hammer strike and Ren with support fire and various hit and run tactics.

With most of the gunmen now disabled, Jaune moved forward, summoning Lancelot's arms and torso, the former of which still holding its giant blade, and began taking care of crowd control, opting to keep a certain group of crooks as close together as possible while Tenya, Pyrrha, and Ruby began taking out the stragglers of the group.

All of this was really beginning to take a toll on Tomura, and Kurogiri was noticing it. "Why isn't he here? He should be here by now. Where the hell is he? Where? Where? Where?" were among some of the other various things he whispered to himself as the battle raged on in front of them.

Tomura then began instinctively, and rather sporadically, scratching his neck, various pieces of fresh skin being torn off in the process. Kurogiri tried to calm his master, but Tomura was having none of it. And then, an idea dawned on him.

"What if we killed one of these kids? That should be enough to draw him out, right?"

At nearly the exact same moment, Yang saw an opportunity to make a beeline for the gray-haired man, and took it, moving from her earlier position to right in front of Tomura in only a second. But he didn't even try to defend himself. He simply held out his hand towards Yang's face, the blonde brawler still completely unaware of his semblance.

Izuku saw this, and, as if on instinct, somehow knew that if that man's hand touched Yang, she wouldn't get out unscathed, if she even survived at all.

Time seemed to halt as Izuku activated Full Cowl and raced over to the two, weaving through various crooks and criminals before getting to his destination, putting himself in front of Yang with his shield expanded and his arm blade drawn. As time seemed to slip back into normalcy, Izuku swung his blade at Tomura and, although the latter was surprised, he still managed to grab the boy's blade and crush it within his grip, disintegrating it entirely. This allowed Yang to shift her focus to Kurogiri, who began to take a battle stance of this own.

"Nomu!" The man called out, the humanoid Grimm responding to the name it had been given, punching Izuku's shield arm as he brought it up to protect himself, sending him across the docks and almost into another stack of shipping crates.

Izuku had managed to slow himself, planting his feet firmly into the ground while he flew across the docks from Nomu's punch, his shield and blade now in shards from Tomura's semblance and Nomu's punch, which probably would've broken anyone else's arm even if they did have Aura. Izuku, getting extremely serious now, activated his gauntlets second form, the full metal gauntlet mode, covering every bare part of his hands in metal. Then, another arrived.

 **"Fear not, trainee hunters, for you are safe!"** A familiar voice boomed throughout the docks. The fighting stopped almost immediately. Everyone looked up to see the Symbol of Hope, All Might, standing atop the stack of shipping crates that Izuku had almost gone through, dressed in a white dress shirt and bright yellow pants with thin black lines running vertically downwards, brown dress shoes and a blue tie completing the outfit. **"Now that I am here!"**

His smile was still ever present on his face, even as he faced down the hundreds of crooks who either looked at him with rage, fear, or a mixture of the two.

But Tomura didn't seem distressed at this at all. In fact, he felt elated! Phase two could now begin!

"Nomu!" The humanoid Grimm looked at Tomura. "Kill," he ordered, pointing directly at All Might. Nomu ran towards All Might, a feral gleam in his incredibly tiny eyes, jumping up to punch All Might, the smiling huntsman merely dodging the attack, allowing the hulking figure to pass him by, leaping after it to do battle.

Now, with the other trainees occupied with the other criminals who weren't already knocked out, All Might currently battling Nomu and Penny nowhere to be found, there were only two. Tomura and Izuku. Their fight was just beginning.

 **(A/N: "Again" by Yui)**

They slowly circled each other, knowing that the one to make the first move would likely lose the battle. The tension was high, and the silence would've been deafening to even the most resistant of people. Then, Tomura stepped just the tiniest bit off balance.

Seeing his opening, Izuku rushed the gray-haired man with Full Cowl, a right hook cocked back as he charged. Tomura dodged out of the way just in time to avoid being skewered by the punch, allowing Izuku to pass him and hit the shipping crated behind him, leaving a rather sizable hole behind.

Tomura then tried to grab onto Izuku, as doing so would play to his semblance's advantages, but the blazer-wearing boy proved to be much more evasive that at first glance, dodging all of Tomura's attempts masterfully.

On his final attempt, Tomura overextended himself, casting his arm far above Izuku's head. Izuku, seeing yet another opening, ducked under Tomura's failed attempt and gave a double palm strike to his chest, sending the man back several feet as he skidded to a halt near the same shipping crate Izuku had left a hole in not twenty seconds earlier.

Tomura, enraged beyond all belief, rushed Izuku once more, but his time with actual martial arts instead of the failed grab attempts. He opened with a straight jab, which Izuku managed to parry with one of his own strikes, then a roundhouse kick that Izuku jumped over, returning the attempted blow with one of his own in midair, which Tomura barely managed to duck under.

As Izuku landed back onto the ground, Tomura had rolled backwards and stood up, his hands in front of him as he prepared for Izuku's next move. He then rushed the gray-haired criminal and unleashed a flurry of punches at him, all of which the crook dodged just as masterfully as Izuku had dodged his grab attempts just a few minutes ago.

Tomura then grabbed Izuku's left gauntlet, and activated his semblance, destroying the weapon entirely within his grasp. Realizing what had happened, Izuku put his feet onto Tomura's chest and launched himself off with a backflip, freeing his hand from the man's grip and putting him at a safe distance once more.

Izuku was then rushed by Tomura once more, but this time he was low on stamina, and at that point, out of options. Izuku took the blow head on, rending him dazed and disoriented. Tomura capitalized on this by once more giving him a hook punch, followed by a knee to the gut and a jab to the nose.

Izuku was sent sprawling onto the pavement, barely conscious and coughing up blood. Tomura then straddled his chest and held his hand menacingly above Izuku's face. As if adding insult to literal injury Tomura began to taunt the poor boy. "Is this really all he had to offer? Are you truly his apprentice?"

Izuku, though shocked, couldn't speak, instead only coughing up even more blood. Toura hardly noticed, but even if he did, he wouldn't have cared. The green haired boy tried to lift his right gauntlet in some form of resistance, but Tomura put an end to the attempt with extreme precision, grabbing the boy's arm with his other hand before he even had a chance to get it two inches off of the ground, pinning it to the ground once more.

"Oh well. At least I don't have to kill anyone else here. That'd be too much work, and quite frankly I'm getting tired of all the pointless grinding. If I want him angry, I'll just have to kill you."

 _What do I do?! How am I supposed to get out of this?!_

Then he remembered what Toshinori instructed to him. If his only choice was to use One for All at its full power, and he couldn't afford to break his arm...

… he could break his finger.

Izuku lifted his left hand a focused all the power he could muster into his middle finger. Tomura didn't notice this, he was too busy monologuing. He flicked his finger.

The kinetic force was enough to send Tomura across the battlefield, right next to Yang and Kurogiri, who stopped their battle to see the results of theirs.

They were both shocked.

 **(A/N: End Song)**

"Izuku!" Yang yelled as she dashed over to him, her own fight with Kurogiri now all but forgotten. She lifted Izuku bridal style and yelled to the others, "Guys! Izuku's injured! We gotta get him to a hospital!"

It was at this moment that All Might had punched Nomu into the sky, with an extremely loud, **"PLUS ULTRA!"** , causing the other crooks who were still conscious to run straight for Kurogiri, who had widened himself to make the same portal they'd come from.

The last two to go through were Torchwick and Tomura, the former of who mumbled, "These kids just keep on getting weirder," before stepping through Kurogiri's portal. Tomura was the last to go through, shooting hateful gazes at All Might and Izuku, the latter in particular, before stepping through Kurogiri's portal and disappearing. Not even making a sound.

This was all that Izuku witnessed before he fell unconscious in Yang's arms, the pain from his battle and his broken finger taking their toll at last.

 _(Vale Hospital, the next day, 12:47 pm)_

A lot of things had transpired while Izuku was out cold in the hospital, a few of which he found out within a few seconds of being awake. Penny had disappeared, Blake was a cat faunus, as well as an ex-member of the White Fang, Torchwick, Tomura and their new posse were still at large, All Might was currently standing in his room in his normal form, and Yang was asleep at his bedside, which made him blush redder than Ruby's namesake.

"You really outta thank the girl when she wakes up. She hasn't left since yesterday." Toshinori commented, causing Izuku to somehow blush even more.

After Izuku was caught up on the above-mentioned things, Toshinori the continued, "All joking aside, while I may not approve of you fighting that man when you're not even a huntsman yet, you did damn well in that fight. I'm proud of you, Midoriya."

Those words brought a smile to Izuku's face that slowly turned into a grin, one that rarely showed on his face. He too happy for words to describe.

But Toshinori continued still. "However, just because I said that doesn't mean you should let it get to your head. Overconfidence can and _will_ get you killed. But don't forget to have confidence in what you know you can do. Also...

"… If you keep on copying my style, you're going to get yourself hurt in the long run. I suggest building a new weapon. That doesn't mean you should stop using hand to hand combat, but having a weapon other than your own two fists is going to help you out a lot more than you think it will."

Toshinori then headed to the door, but not before leaving Izuku with, "Don't get held down by me. Experiment until you find the right weapon for _you_."

Toshinori then left, leaving Izuku to solve the meaning left behind by Tsohnori's sagely advice. _My own weapon..._

He thought of what he would want it to be, how he could use a new fighting style. He was almost tempted to take notes, but he, unfortunately, didn't have his notebooks with him. Then he thought back to two of the strongest fighters he knew. Shoto and Ruby. Swords and a Scythe...

Izuku then pulled out his scroll and dialed Mei, whose scroll number he'd received when he and his team had been looking for Blake just a few days earlier. The bubbly pink haired girl picked up the line, greeting with, _"Hey there Izuku! How're ya doing'?"_

"In the hospital, so I guess I could be better." He responded with a slight cheeriness in his voice, her happiness was that infectious, though he was careful not to awaken the blonde still sleeping on his bed.

"Mei, do you remember that new blacksmithing method you were talking to me about?"

 _"Of course! Why do you ask?"_

"Well...

"… I've got a job for you."

 _(several hours earlier, unknown location in Vale, 12:35 am)_

Torchwick, Tomura, and the lodge of criminals walked into their hideout in defeat, missing out on one of the biggest scores of their time. They wouldn't get another chance like that in a very, _very_ long time.

"How very disappointing, Roman. And you as well, Tomura. So underwhelming." A sultry voice said in slight hostility from behind him. Startled, the two leaders looked behind them to see their employer, Cinder Fall, standing at the entrance to their hidey hole with the two members of her posse, as well as two others that they didn't recognize.

Cinder herself had ashen-black hair and bright amber eyes, while her fingernails were painted dark red. She wore a dark-red, off-the-shoulders, V-neck mini dress with yellow designs. There was a blue feather-like accessory on her right hip, at the top of an open portion of her dress. The dress ended in an upside-down triangular tail in the back, ending just above the knees. There was a baseball diamond-shaped keyhole on the dress' upper back at the same height as her chest. The sleeves ended in a triangle shape, which were wrapped or tied around her middle finger, with the gold designs of the sleeve taking over at the wrists. She wore black shorts underneath her dress, as well as a black choker on her neck. She also wore a gold loop earring with a black gem dangling from it on her right ear. She has dark, glass, high-heeled shoes and a jeweled anklet on her right leg. On her upper back, in the keyhole of her dress, she had a black tattoo of what appeared to be a pair of high heel shoes placed sole to sole, forming a heart shape inside.

When she and Tomura first met, they didn't particularly like each other, not even slightly. It was practically hate at first sight. Moving on...

"Whoa!" Torchwick exclaimed, clearly more surprised at the sudden arrival than Tomura, though he quickly composed himself, continuing with, "I wasn't expecting to see you guys this soon."

"We were expecting... more out of you. Especially with the new lackeys you'd recently received."

"We aren't lackeys." Tomura sharply responded, earning another death glare from Cinder. This wasn't the first time he'd been the victim of one of these, and it certainly wouldn't be the last. However, unlike most people, like Torchwick, Tomura wasn't even phased by the death glares she often sent his way, only meeting them in full force with his own. And, to stop and al out fight from happening, Torchwick yet again had to play peacekeeper. He hated playing peacekeeper.

"Now now, let's all calm down." He said to them, putting himself between the two to keep a brawl from occurring. "There's no need for this. And he has a point Cinder. Tomura and I are partners. Nothing more, nothing less.

"And besides, you're the one who suggested working with those idiots from the White Fang."

"And you will continue to do so." She continued, lighting a fire in her palm for intimidation, though it hardly even phased Tomura at that point. "We have big plans for the two of you. All we're asking for is... a little cooperation."

"And what about the two brats behind you? They part of your posse now?" Tomura asked as rudely as he could.

Cinder, though some anger could be seen in her eyes, doused her flames as she responded. "No. On the contrary, they came here looking for you."

Tomura was only minorly shocked at this. While the Huntsman Hunter Stain had been quite the enigma and proved damn hard to get ahold of, he had spoken to the man a few weeks prior, and they had a rather... violent difference in opinion. They'd agreed to stay out of each other's way, but it was an incredibly shaky truce. Ironically, Stain's actions were only giving his faction more and more support by the day, giving many a crook the courage to come out of the shadows and join his cause. But back to present matters...

Tomura gave them both a once over. The girl was petite with blonde hair, stylized into messy buns on the sides of her head, also sporting a set of straight bangs in an uneven 'hime' cut with two long strands of her hair on either side of her face. Her eyes were yellow and somewhat squinted, with cat slits for pupils, giving away her faunus heritage, and the had dark purple bags under them. Her Pronounced teeth gave away, yet again, that she was either a type of canine or feline faunus, though the latter was more likely, considering her lithe form. She wore a sailor uniform with an oversized cardigan that covered most of her skirt, and cuffs that covered the palms of her hands. She also wore knee-length black socks and classic school uniform loafers. In her right pocket, she carried what appeared to be a number of charms on a CIS.

The boy, however, was much different than the girl next to him. His most striking feature was the patches of purple skin that looked as though they'd been sewn and stapled on, and were also deeply wrinkled, though the rest of his skin was normal, pale and smooth. There were rows of stitches that extended to the corners of his mouth to just above his ears, giving him something resembling a permanent grin. There were also patches of purple skin under his eyes, making them appear permanently lidded. He also had jet black hair arranged in a spiky style, the only thing remotely normal looking about him other than his clothes. He wore dark pants that reached above his ankles and a dark coat over a simple light shirt, along with dark shoes. He also wore a belt and what appeared to be a small leather pouch around his waist.

The boy then continued, introducing the two of them. "Hello. This psychopath next to me is Himiko." He pointed to the crazed looking blonde, who gave him a pout. "You can call me Dabi.

"And we'd like to join the Lodge of Criminals."

 **A/N: Phew! Finally, done! Sorry that took so long guys, school just started back up again, and I don't have nearly as much time as I used to.**

 **A lot happened in this chapter too. Stain appeared, Tenya's out for revenge, Tomura directly affected the main story (like he always does), Izuku needs a new weapon, and Himiko and Dabi are being added to the mix. Can things get any crazier?!**

 **They can and they will.**

 **Also, for those of you still missing other people from the HeroAca universe, fear not! For Tokoyami and Tsuyu will be appearing in the next chapter. Hopefully. Maybe.**

 **Please don't kill me.**

 **And now on to our next profile, Tenya Iida!**

 **4-Tenya Iida**

 **Age: 17**

 **Race: Human**

 **BDay: 06/22**

 **Handedness: Left**

 **Hair: Blue and Neat**

 **Eyes: Blue**

 **Blood Type: A**

 **Height: 6' 1"/185.42cm**

 **Gender: M**

 **Semblance: Overdrive, a hereditary semblance that can achieve speeds easily comparable to Ruby's, if not even more mind-boggling. He can get muscle cramps if he uses it too excessively.**

 **Weapon: Pride, a Qiang/ .50 caliber sniper rifle hybrid, used in a combination a gunplay and traditional Qiang style.**

 **Range: Mid/Long range combat**

 **Fighting Style: Traditional Qiang style**

 **I'm also gonna try and schedule myself, since that will be a good thing to start practicing, considering the fact that I have school, a part-time job, and Taekwondo to worry about. Hang in there guys!**

 **Next chapter (hopefully): August 25th**

 **See you guys in the next one!**


	11. New Weapon, New Friends

**A/N: Hello everyone! It's me, back again with another chapter! And a whole day early! Hope you all continue to enjoy this story!**

 **Also, slight gore warning for the beginning. Sorry.**

 **Edit (11/18/18): I was right, at least thus far. Another batch of A/N deletions and rewordings. Hopefully that makes things more bearable.**

 **Review Responses (for the ones I couldn't message directly) :**

 **Guest: Ask and ye shall receive! Also, thank you so much for the support! You're awesome!**

 **Disclaimer: I do not own RWBY or My Hero Academia. They belong to Monty Oum, Kohei Horikoshi, and their respective publishing companies. Please support the official releases.**

 **I do not own the cover image**

Chapter 11: New Weapon, New Friends

The streets of Vale were calm at this time of day, though it was fairly near the afternoon's end. It was only a few months away from the beginning of the Vytal festival, and the mood was overall very cheery. Several banners and balloons had been replaced over the last week to keep in harmony with the general mood, which was still extremely happy, giddy and optimistic.

Dabi did not share this mood. In fact, the only real moods he'd had ever since the experiments were gloomy indifference, rage, and annoyance. Now normally, Dabi was a very calm and accepting person, very rare to anger, and even ran along with some of his partner's... unusual habits.

But by Oum, these three tested his temper every millisecond he was with them.

The first was one Himiko Toga, who he'd met a few weeks ago when they'd first joined with the Lodge of Criminals. She was an incredibly bubbly blonde mountain lion half-faunus with a sadistic streak that would give Jack the Red Ripper a run for his money. She'd been assigned as his main partner, and while he could tolerate her "love stories," her habit of becoming other people and cutting them into "sizeable pieces" was going to cause him to pop a blood vessel, and he wasn't even twenty yet.

The next was Emerald Sustrai, a thief born in the deserts of Vacuo and raised in Mistral's criminal underworld who had a very bad habit of stealing wallets, even the ones she didn't mean to. Like his. Constantly. Appearance-wise, she had medium-brown skin and dark-red eyes. Her hair was a light, mint-green cut with a straight fringe and bangs, as well as two long locks on each side in the back. She wore two bronze-colored rings on her middle fingers as well as a pair of high-heeled shoes. Her attire consisted of an intricate white top and an olive-colored crop top, on the back of which was her personal emblem, which was, ironically enough, an emerald. She also wore a wooden bead chain on her left hand. This was accompanied by white pants and brown chaps that ended at her calves and an overlong belt, twice-wrapped, where she kept her weapons as well as a single pouch.

And finally, there was Mercury Black, son of the international assassin Marus Black. His eyes and hair were the same silvery gray, though he was the same age as them, which was partially slicked back while the front of it was unkempt. He wore a slate gray and black two-tone partial-zip jacket that covered his upper body, as well as sets of rerebraces and vambraces to protect his arms. He also wore dark brown pants held up by a black leather belt with golden hole outlines and the buckle, and his boots were jet black, hiding his prosthetic legs from view.

Dabi's opinion of them?

If he were anyone else other than Cinder or Tomura, they would've been damn near intolerable.

Luckily, Dabi had _**god-like patience**_ and was able to tolerate them, for the most part. He often spent his days off alone, and far away from any of his "teammates" so that he could relax and, at times, get some much-needed stress relief. Not the sexual kind. The violent kind. There were actually plenty of underground fighting rings around Vale, as long as you knew where to look for them. But I digress...

Emerald, after faking getting lost and stealing the shop owner's wallet, walked past them, Mercury beginning their conversation by saying, "I knew you were lost," rather sarcastically to Emerald. The girl turned towards him, stolen wallet in hand, responding with, "Mercury, I will seriously pay you to shut the hell up."

"That's not even your money."

"But it could be yours for five short minutes of silence."

It was at this moment that Dabi grabbed the wallet out of Emerald's hand, took out the Lien, and tossed the useless piece of leather aside, adding the money in his hand to his own wallet. Emerald, not used to being stolen from, nearly yelled, "Hey, what the hell?!"

"First come first serve. Also, don't try to steal my wallet again, or I'll make a habit of stealing yours."

"Like you even could!"

Sparks flew between them before Himiko started gushing over a random person she'd dismembered just a few weeks ago. "Aww, this reminds me of one of my boyfriends! He was so toned and rich and tender. Ah! Such a pleasant scream!" This and several other sadistic acts were committed before the boy _finally_ bled to death. Dabi shivered at the memory. He never wanted to stand guard for Himiko's "hobby" ever again if he could help it.

"How much farther?" Mercury asked, already bored with the situation.

"Just another block or so." Emerald curtly answered.

"Uugh, this place is so freakin' boring." He said, obviously not impressed with what Vale had to offer.

"You really haven't seen this cities underbelly if you think this is all there is to Vale," Dabi said.

"What's that supposed to mean?" Mercury responded, only the slightest bit of hostility in his voice.

"That you have no taste, Merc," Emerald said before Dabi could further retort to Mercury's previous statement. "Besides, I kinda like it here. Tall buildings, diverse culture-"

"And nice dopey people who're easy to pickpocket."

"Those are in _every_ city." Emerald waved a wallet in front of him, prompting Dabi to search the pocket where he normally kept his, which he found to be empty. _That little-_

Catching himself, Dabi breathed in and out, just like he'd been taught all those years ago. _Stay calm,_ he told himself. _Don't cause a scene._

When Mercury and Emerald had finished with their shenanigans and Himiko began to gush over a thief she'd dissected a few years prior, they'd finally managed to reach their destination. "Tukson's Book Trade" was clearly printed at the top of the entrance of the store in faded bronze before they entered the musty shop, which, conveniently for them, was empty of customers.

A man could be heard rummaging around in the back, humming an oddly familiar tune. Dabi and Mercury went to the right side of the store while Toga giddily skipped off to the left, where the 'romance' section was located. Emerald opted to be first engagement, ringing the bell at the front desk, prompting a "Be right there!" to emerge from the back of the shop where the owner was currently sorting various books.

The man, Tukson, Dabi presumed, came out of the back balancing two stacks of books with his hands that were pressed against his chest. As he put them down, he greeted Emerald. "Welcome to Tukson's Book Trade, home to every book under the sun! How may I help you?"

"Just browsing." Mercury responded, Dabi simply nodding along for effect, while Himiko yelled from the 'romance' section, "I'm not!"

Emerald played off of this, asking Tukson, "Actually, my friend's been looking for a hardcover copy of 'The Thief and The Butcher' for a while now. Do you have any?"

"Yes, we do. They should be near the back of the horror section."

"Thank you, mister!" Himiko again shouted from the now confirmed horror section with glee, obviously happy that she could finally read the story she'd been obsessed with finding for the past month. It was fairly hard to get modern books when you live in far-eastern Anima, which was where she'd lived for the past few years. Moving on...

Mercury decided that it would be a good idea to loudly slam one of the books that he'd picked up shut as loudly as he could. While Dabi had to reign in his anger just the tiniest little bit, Emerald and Himiko hardly even noticed, the latter continuing to giddily hum something from the horror section whilst the former asked Tukson yet another question. "What about Violet's Garden? In paperback."

"He's got it. In hardback too." Mercury lifted up the book they were currently discussing, to which Emerald responded, "Ooooo, options _are_ nice to have."

Mercury opened up the book in his hands only to scoff and say, "Meh, no pictures." before slamming the book shut, causing Dabi's mindset to change back to the mission at hand. _Is he testing the sound capacity?_

"Hey, lemme see that." Mercury handed him the book, asking, "Why would you even wanna read this? It's a tragedy."

Dabi briefly responded with, "Haven't read it yet. Besides, I like tragedies," opening the book the second afterwards, cutting off all further response. He then slammed the book shut, almost as loudly as Mercury did, muttering "Need to get one in paperback," under his breath as he listened closely to the echo of the sound for a few seconds, finding that the sound had reverberated through the walls. _I see. So, this place is soundproofed. He's been expecting this for a while._

Mercury, now in need of something to entertain himself, for the next few minutes asked Tukson, "Hey! Do you have any comics?"

"Near the front."

"Oh!" Emerald exclaimed in fake surprise when she asked the 'signal question,' something Mercury and Himiko had reluctantly agreed to while they were planning this job. Dabi had opted to remain silent for it. "What about... Third Crusade?"

At the mention of that particular book, Tukson clammed up for a good seven seconds before he responded in an apologetic tone, "I... don't believe we carry that one."

The banter then continued on until they somehow started arguing about the catchphrase. It was a rather tedious argument, and one that quickly desisted into a serious tone. Mercury then began closing the windows, ensuring that no one from the outside would be able to look in and see what they were about to do. Dabi glanced across the room, seeing Himiko with a giddy look on her face and the flick-open knives that were usually hidden in her sleeves at the ready. Dabi, similarly, put his book back on the shelf, taking note of it so that he could come back for it later, and reached inside of his jacket, taking hold of the grip of his Colt Python Revolver/single edged straight sword, the one he'd named Purgatory all those months ago.

"You know who we are, don't you?" Emerald asked, a smirk ever present on her face.

"Yes." Tukson sharply answered, the politeness he'd shown them earlier vanishing within a millisecond.

"And you know why we're here?"

"Yes." His eyes narrowed.

"So... are you going to fight back?"

His eyes flickered into cat slits, and his mouth twisting into a scowl as he answered, "Yes!"

He unsheathed his claws as he leapt onto the desk he once stood behind, deciding to try and take out the nearest combatant first, which was Emerald. He swung for the green-haired thief without forethought, missing her as she stepped aside for Mercury to take a shot at the man, grazing him in the shoulder with the shotguns built into his boots.

Tukson rolled on the ground, barely able to stand up as he held his injured shoulder filled with buckshot in one hand. He then heard the barely audible click of a gun hammer behind his head. If he had turned, he would've seen Dabi pointing Purgatory straight at him. Wordlessly, and without a moment of hesitation, Dabi pulled the trigger, not even blinking as Tukson's gray matter was sprayed out onto the carpeted floor in front of him, the man falling forward in what otherwise would've been considered an overdramatic fashion, his lifeblood pooling out and into the carpet.

Mercury, ever the complainer, said, "Damn it, Dabi. This is way too messy to get rid of quickly enough."

"I already had a plan for that, Mercury. Just let me get the books I wanted and I'll get rid of the evidence." Then he heard Himiko's adorable yet terrifying giggle as she approached the corpse, her knives ready to cut something open and into little, tiny pieces. "Once we get Himiko _far_ away from this guy's corpse."

Mercury and Emerald, realizing what was about to happen, dragged Himiko by her sweater out the back door, which, thankfully for them, Tukson left unlocked. They found a dumpster in the back, which just so happened to be the perfect foothold for them to climb up to the rooftop next to the bookshop. Mercury, being the most experienced at these types of situations, instantly ran up the wall with practiced ease, reaching down to help up the other two still on the ground behind him.

Emerald, though reluctantly, accepted his gesture, and after she was up and on the roof, helped Mercury literally drag Himiko up to the roof while she complained, "No! Leggo! I wanna cut his body open!"

"No." They both answered her despair in simultaneous deadpan.

"Please?"

"Still no."

It was around this time that Dabi found his own way onto the roof, a white plastic bag full of various books in one of his hands, dangling carelessly from it. "Right, time to get out of here."

"What about the evidence?" Mercury asked as Dabi began to walk away, still worried about their cover.

"Oh, that." Dabi then turned around, saying to the others, "You may wanna stand back. This'll be pretty big."

Though they looked at him with doubt and confusion, they did what he asked and stood away from the building. Dabi then put his bag of books down next to him, then closing his eyes and concentrating, raising his hands as he did so. Then, the purple parts of his skin began to glow with strange writing in a dark auburn hue, almost like Vacuean runes. Dabi brought his hands together in a flash, causing a sharp crack to come from his hands. And in an instant...

… the entire shop was in dark-tinted flames.

Mercury and Emerald were shocked beyond belief. How? How did he have this much power? This could be enough to match Cinder's!

Himiko, ever the ignorant psychopath, hardly even noticed, instead looking over the edge to find someone to cut up into little tiny pieces.

Dabi, not at all impressed with the display he just put on, since he'd done similar thing so many times before back at the lab, once more grabbed his bag of books, turned from the crime scene and began walking away, saying to the others, "Let's get out of here before the hunters show up."

And so they left, another question hanging over their heads and an upset psychopath being dragged behind them.

 _(Maijima Gadgets and Guns, 12:37 am, one day later)_

 _"The city of Vale is still shaken from the recent arson of a local bookstore by the name of Tukson's Book Trade. The shop was burnt to the ground, and hardly any of the original structure remained. The body of the owner was found hours ago by the police, who-"_

Mei shut off the TV they kept behind the counter, any negative mood that would've ruined the day now dispersed. Izuku, however, looked at her with distraught, asking, "Mei, what the heck?! I was watching the news."

"It would've ruined the mood you're supposed to be in! Also, really? Heck? Don't you know how to swear?"

Izuku, knowing full well his problem with swearing in any fashion, blushed slightly at Mei's statement. "My mom always said that it was a rude thing to do, so I try not to."

"Only if you don't use the words appropriately, _then_ it's considered rude. Now, enough pouting! There's a weapon for you to claim!"

Mei giddily skipped into the workshop, Izuku trailing behind her as she dove into the storage closet for the new weapon he'd requested a few weeks ago. He dug through the memories of the past two weeks, his mind now unmuddied and clear of its previous thoughts of the arson from not even a day earlier. Everything had returned to normal, for the most part. Torchwick had made his usual robberies, and evaded police and huntsman custody alike; it was as if he were shadow itself. Stain was also still at large, but he had yet to slay another huntsman, though his various sightings around Vale had still given him and his team, Tenya especially, many sleepless nights. He'd not yet officially reappeared, and whether or not that was a good thing, Izuku still didn't know. Only time would tell the answer to that question.

The gray-haired man who'd backed Torchwick up at the docks was also still at large. Izuku presumed that the two were working together since the large number of crooks he'd commanded showed up shortly after Torchwick had made the backup call. Who was he? Why was he helping Torchwick?

And why couldn't he shake the feeling that he had a bigger role to play in everything?

Izuku was shaken from those thoughts when Mei stumbled out if the storage closet, a large bundle in her hand, dusting herself off as she exited. She then turned to the blazer-wearing boy, saying, "Here it is! C'mon, let's see how you look with it!"

Mei practically shoved the bundle into Izuku's hands, causing the boy to stumble back slightly as he felt the weapon's unfamiliar weight. He soon steadied himself and regained his balance, and unwrapped the bundle.

It was a sixty-seven inch great sword that, while it did appear to be single-edged, as was the design of the nearly rectangular blade, with the exception of an right triangle-esque proportion taken off to make the tip; it was actually double-edged, though the one on the back was subtler than the one that could be seen on the front. There was no guard above the hilt, which was itself about one foot and six inches long and wrapped in leather with an X cross pattern. The blade itself was about a foot wide and forty inches long, with subtle lines throughout to allow for the transformation into its second form. It was tinted green, though it was darker in the base than at the edges, with Vaucean runes the same hue as the edges running along the back edge of the blade.

"How do I shift it into scythe mode?" He asked Mei, since he'd left the weapon building up to her this time.

She promptly answered, "Pull the pommel out slightly, twist it about halfway, then press it back in, that'll start the transformation. I even put little markers on there so you know where to stop!"

Izuku followed her instructions, finding that it did indeed have little brands of a small sword and scythe on opposite sides at the bottom of the handle, with the rounded pommel having just the tiniest little pointer arrow aimed towards the sword brand. Izuku twisted the pommel to the scythe and pressed it back inwards, beginning the transformation.

The sword blade curved outwards, the subtler edge now becoming more pronounced than its brother as it transformed into a large scythe blade. The handle then extended from only a measly nine inches to forty-five, now the same length as the previous mode, with two curves running throughout the handle structure, giving more versatility than a standard straight pole. But then, Izuku realized a tiny little detail he'd been neglecting till just that moment.

"I have no idea how to use either of these forms!"

Mei, not one for downers, tried to get Izuku's mood up as quickly as she could. "Well, didn't you say that two of your friends had weapons kinda like that one? Just ask them for help."

"But-"

"No buts! They're your friends, Izuku. They'll help you out if you ask them to, but only _if_ you ask them to. So have confidence in the fact that they'll be there for you no matter what, alright?"

His solution to his once glaring problem now made clear, he thanked Mei for the advice, sliding on the magnetic holster of his sword/scythe onto his back, turning his weapon back into sword form and placing it there, the hilt coming over his right shoulder.

Then another question came to mind. "How did you even utilize Dust with this thing? Doesn't it usually disappear as soon as it's used up?"

Mei explained the best she could. "I'd tell you the specifics as to how it works, but that would take several hours of equations, theories, and questioning the laws of the universe as we know it than we have time for. What you should know is that despite common belief, it actually is possible to fuse Dust into weaponry and not have it be used up right away, you just have to know the right amounts.

"In most cases, like this one, you can do two things to charge and discharge the Dust I used when I made that sword/scythe of yours. One: you can charge it with your own Aura, which, while more efficient, can be extremely draining for people without an especially large Aura to charge it. Plus, it takes longer.

"The second and far more dangerous method is by having it absorb kinetic energy from attacks made by enemies, which it can then release as attacks that are of the same element or type of Dust that was used to forge the weapon in the first place. This method is quicker than charging it with your own Aura, but as I said earlier, it's _way_ more dangerous, so be careful with it; and switch between these two methods when you feel like you have to, alright?"

"Got it! Thanks for the heads-up Mei. See you later!" Izuku began to walk towards the workshop when Mei stopped him, saying, "I've got something else for you, if you're interested."

Izuku, being the curious person he was, turned to see just what it was Mei had for him. She exited the workshop for a second time, and in her hands she carried a pair of black, fingerless gloves and a pair of forest green combat boots with black details and plating covering the toes, soles, and heels.

"What're those for?" Izuku asked, not knowing the occasion for this type of celebration.

"Happy late eighteenth Birthday, Izuku!" Mei exclaimed in excitement and glee, and gave her friend the tightest bear hug she could. Now, while Izuku wasn't exactly used to this much physical contact from anyone besides his mom and occasionally Yang, he was more shocked than embarrassed. In fact, he didn't really even feel all that embarrassed. He didn't see Mei 'like that,' just as a friend. Izuku returned the hug, though with far less pressure than Mei was giving, and they both broke away from it a few seconds later.

Mei then explained herself. "I heard that birthday happened a few months after you left for Initiation. What was the guy's name? Shoto... something? Anyway, I felt kinda bad about not getting you anything, so I made these in my spare time. I hope you like them."

Izuku, politely accepting the gifts he'd just been given, putting on the gloves first. At first glance, they were nothing all that special, but as Izuku put them on, he felt small, rounded pieces of plating sewn in front of each of the knuckles. Hello, sneaky advantage.

"They've got reinforced titanium plating in front of the knuckles, so they should last longer than your old gauntlets. No offense."

"None taken," Izuku replied as he pulled off his old boots, now scratched up and dirty from all the fights he'd been in, and slipped on the new ones that Mei had made for him. He immediately noticed that they were far lighter than he'd expected, what with the plating on them as well as the fact that they were combat boots. He also noticed a slight weight in the heel of the boots. What was this, some kind of hidden weapon?

That turned out to be exactly what it was, as Mei explained, "There are shotguns built into the heels of your boots, courtesy of moi. They're designed to fire whenever you kick, but you gotta kick pretty hard for the mechanism to fire."

"Thank you for the gift Mei, but... I don't know if I'll ever really use these. I mean, I'm going to try and learn two new styles of fighting. I may not be able to learn how to use these."

"I know, but it's better to have _a_ backup weapon than _no_ backup weapon. So, even if you never use them, you'll always have something to fall back on if you get captured or something along those lines.

"Well, that's all I had to say. See you later!" Mei said before she disappeared into her workshop, the sounds of tools already echoing from within, giving away that she was already working on another project she wouldn't reveal to anyone.

Izuku turned and left the store, a smile on his face and the confidence that this semester would at least be a tad bit calmer than the last one. That thought was immediately shot down when he remembered just who he was friends with.

 _(Beacon Academy, 1:24 pm, shortly after the food fight)_

Izuku had, admittedly, seen a lot of cool things, what with the constant duels, Grimm hunts, and classroom spats over the year; and they _were_ fairly entertaining, provided that you weren't a part of the action, of course. But as Izuku stepped into the mess hall and saw the carnage that the food fight had wrought...

"This puts everything cool I've ever seen to shame."

"I know, right?" a few people near him said with either glee, awe, or tactfulness.

Izuku turned to his right to see his team with the blonde monkey faunus who he'd seen on the docks earlier with Blake, along with a blue-haired teen who looked to be his teammate, and Kirishima and three other next to him in their school uniforms. The first was, surprisingly, a raven faunus, with feather hair swept back and a beak for a mouth. He was rather pale for someone hailing from Mistral, and his solid red eyes giving away the fact that he was definitely not native to Anima. His uniform was worn rather informally, the jacket unzipped and the white undershirt exposed and untucked, the black pants he wore having a few holes in them, and the white armband being the only thing about his uniform that was... well, uniform.

The second was a frog faunus who looked rather cute in her own way, her eyes much larger than her feather-haired teammates, solid black pupils in the center of them. Her hair was a shade lighter of green than Izuku's, coming down to the small of her back and tied in a bow near the bottom, with the bangs parted and tucked behind her ears. She was hunched over just the slightest bit, her uniform worn more properly than her teammate, though instead of a pair of black pants she instead wore a black and white checkered skirt, the same white armband in the same place as the raven faunus'.

The third was especially surprising, with bubblegum pink skin and horns that only seemed to give off her devilish prankster nature even more, she was a seahorse faunus, clearly giving away the fact that she was likely born near the sea, and definitely able to survive underwater for extended periods. Her hair was only the slightest shade lighter than her skin, and though it was cut short, it was quite disheveled, clearly screaming the fact that she was a tomboy and not afraid to admit it. She wore the same uniform as her peers, only with the shirt untucked, with the tail clearly visible underneath her jacket, and the same checkered skirt as her other female teammate.

Kirishima was the only one on his team to be wearing his hunter's outfit, for what reason Izuku didn't know. He pushed those thoughts to the back of his mind when the monkey faunus hopped over to him, putting an arm over his left shoulder, saying, "Hey, Neptune! This is that one guy I was telling you about! The one that took out the main boss of the goons at the docks with only his finger!"

The blonde boy, who he'd heard in passing was called Sun, had tanned skin and blue eyes, his hair short and spiky, though not nearly as much as Bakugo's. He wore two red wrist bracers over black fingerless gloves and an open loose-collared white jacket with no shirt underneath, displaying his muscular physique. He also wore blue cargo pants held up with a white belt. He wore white bandages on his legs and has a chain hanging from the belt loop on the right side of his pants. He also sported black and yellow sneakers and a pendant hanging from a black cord on his neck the bore the symbol of a monkey, likely a family emblem of some kind. He also had a prehensile tail near the small of his back, the only clue to his faunus heritage.

"C'mon, Sun. This kid? With only a finger? He looks like a speed fighter, not a strength fighter."

The one who'd answered Sun, the guy he called Neptune, was also tanned, and had dark-blue eyes and messy light-blue hair that was shaved on the sides and on the back, a style Izuku believed was called an undercut. He wore a white dress shirt and black tie under a red jacket adorned with a wide, upturned, black collar, and a silver reticle across the back. He also sported a pair of gray jeans with black padding strapped to the sides, as well as black shoes fastened with straps instead of laces. Izuku also noticed that Neptune had black fingerless gloves on his hands and a pair of yellow-tinted goggles worn on his forehead. All in all, Neptune looked like a cool guy, but by his tone, he wasn't exactly one to mince words either.

"I'm serious! One second, the guy had him pinned to the ground and the next, he flicked the bastard across the docks like a badass!"

"Really?" The raven faunus asked, intrigued by Izuku's feat that Sun was currently boasting about.

"Yeah! And the fight before it happened was freakin' awesome!"

"It seems farfetched, but I've never known you to lie, Sun. I'll take your word for it. Ribbit!" said the frog faunus, her thought to speech processor clearly missing from her head.

"Oh, um, hi there!" Izuku awkwardly greeted the three faunus. "Are you Kirishima's team?"

"Indeed, we are. Name's Tokoyami Fumikage. Pleasure."

"Tsuyu Asui. You can call me Tsu."

"And I'm Mina Ashido! I'm almost the leader of this fine team of ours!" The bubbly seahorse faunus introduced herself with happiness that was almost as infectious as Mei's. Almost.

"Is there any reason you're wearing your school's uniform rather than your hunter outfits?" Izuku asked, wondering why they were dressed as such while the others in the group weren't.

"Getting some holes patched up," Tokoyami explained.

"Resizing," Tsuyu said.

"Need a new jacket before I wear the rest of it," Mina said with her ever so infectious smile.

"So... Tokoyami, Tsuyu, Mina, and Kirishima."

"Yep." They synched.

"And all together, we're Team TAKT, the manliest team on this side of Remnant!" Kirishima finished with a little too much enthusiasm.

"Is he always like this?" Izuku whispered to Tokoyami, who curtly answered, "You sorta get used to it after a while. He's so boisterous you'd think he was a rally speaker."

It was at this moment that Izuku noticed that someone was missing from the food fight group. All of JNPR had been splattered against the wall, Weiss was out cold on the floor, as was Blake, and Ruby was the only one on her team left standing. So...

Where was Yang?

As if to answer his question, a loud yell began descending from above the recently repaired mess hall. Assuming the worst, Izuku activated Full Cowl and jumped off of the various flagpoles on the walls, and jumped off with his arms outstretched, and caught Yang just as she crashed through the ceiling, their combined weight making them fall quickly to the floor, though not before Izuku managed to straighten himself, his feet now angled towards the ground. They landed with a loud crash, breaking the table underneath them, causing Goodwitch to nearly pop a blood vessel, but that wasn't on Izuku's mind at the moment.

He looked at the blonde brawler in his arms with concern filled eyes, not entirely sure whether or not she was conscious. That was soon remedied when Yangs amethyst orbs fluttered open and immediately began staring at Izuku's. They then both realized a little too late the position they were in, Yang hoping out of Izuku's arms while the green haired boy practically snapped his arms to his sides. They faced away from each other, Yang with only a slight blush while Izuku was practically a tomato.

"Did you see what I just saw?" Sun asked Shoto.

The half and half boy glanced at the blonde monkey faunus, then towards the two in the middle of the recently destroyed table. With only the slightest knowing smile on his face, he answered, "I have no idea what you're talking about."

Izuku and Yang walked over to their respective teams, the former greeting his leader. "Hey, Shoto. Could I ask you for a-"

"You need help with swordplay?"

"How'd you know?"

Shoto pointed over his right shoulder, obviously eluding to the sword/scythe that now rested on Izuku's back. The green haired boy nodded in recognition, his training now secure. At least, with one teacher, but he would ask Ruby for her help later.

"So, what's its name?"

"I picked it on the way over here. Its name is Gale."

"Oddly fitting. Well, for our first training session..."

Glynda was about to let loose her wrath when a rather gangly hand was put on her shoulder. She glanced behind her to see Aizawa behind her, with Ozpin standing at a safe distance behind him. "Let it go, Glynda. They were just having some fun."

"They're supposed to be the defenders of our world, not... not this."

It was at this time that Ozpin took over. "And they will be. But that day is not today. For the moment, they're still children. So, instead of discouraging them, why not let them play the role for a little while. After all, they won't get to be children forever. We three know that better than most."

Glynda sighed, already knowing that the argument was lost. "Okay. But if they do anything like... that, ever again, they'll receive detention until the year's end."

Now satisfied, Ozpin let the room, leaving Aizawa and a very annoyed Goodwitch to corral the students out of the mess hall and repair the recently broken table.

 **A/N: And that's a wrap! Tell me what you thought of it! The feedback really helps me out, so thank you very much!**

 **Also, I'm sorry that Kirishima and his team basically got the equivalent to cameos. They'll be more important in the next few chapters, specifically, Kirishima and Tokoyami.**

 **Also, if you're wondering what happened with Dabi and the others when they got back to the hideout, it's basically the same thing, just with them making a few comments. It seemed rather tedious and kind of boring, so I edited it out. Sorry if you wanted to see that.**

 **And a question for you all: Who do you ship with who? Let me know. I respond to all reviews when I'm able to. Thank you for your support on this amazing ride!**

 **And now, the profile. I'll be a little unorthodox today, and give you Kirishima's profile as well as Izuku's updated profile. Here they are!**

 **5-Eijiro Kirishima**

 **Age: 17**

 **Race: Wolverine Faunus**

 **BDay: 10/16**

 **Handedness: Right**

 **Hair: Red and Spiky**

 **Eyes: Red**

 **Blood Type: O**

 **Height: 5' 10"**

 **Gender: M**

 **Semblance: Rock Solid, allows Kirishima to harden his skin to the point of being nearly unbreakable, and sharpen it enough to cut through metal like butter. He has an ultimate defensive mode called "Red Riot Unbreakable," which turns his entire body extremely hard and rugged, giving him a rather monstrous appearance, but this form can only be maintained for thirty to forty seconds.**

 **Weapon: Feral Blades, gauntlet/claw/shotgun hybrids with four blades and four shotgun barrels for each knuckle.**

 **1-Izuku Midoriya**

 **Age: 18**

 **Race: Human**

 **BDay: 07/15**

 **Handedness: Right**

 **Hair: Green and Messy**

 **Eyes: Dark Green**

 **Blood Type: O**

 **Height: 5ft 8.5in / 174.27cm**

 **Gender: M**

 **Semblance: One for All, a power passed down willingly from person to person. This was given to Izuku by All Might, the most powerful huntsman to ever live. He cannot use it to its full potential, however, as even trying will force him to break his own limbs. He has a way to bypass this, a technique called Full Cowl, which, ironically enough, is the name he uses as a cover. Full Cowl can allow Izuku to safely tap into 5% of One for All's full power.**

 **Weapons: Gale, a great sword/war scythe combo made with Dust infusion at just the right amounts, which allows it to use absorbed Aura or kinetic energy to release the element or type of Dust that made the weapon in the first place.**

 **Shotgun Boots, fairly self-explanatory. Izuku has no use for them as of yet, but he will find a way to use them, as he always does.**

 **Fighting Style: Currently in Training with Shoto and Ruby**

 **And that's all for now! See you in the next one!**

 **Next Chapter: September 4th**


	12. The Endeavor of Ironwood

**A/N: We made it guys! Over 11,000 views! Thank you all so much! This one's for you guys! Enjoy!**

 **Oh, and Happy Labor Day!**

 **Edit (11/22/18): Happy Thanksgiving, guys! Not much to really say here. It's basically been the same as it's always been. A/N deletions and a few rewordings here and there. Well, have a good holiday!**

 **Review Responses (for the ones I didn't/couldn't directly message):**

 **MarsDragon3180: Thank you for the support! And thanks for your advice with that particular pairing, it will be a slow burn, but not to the point that the audience will scream "JUST KISS ALREADY!"**

 **fernandamichelleraya: Thank you for the pairing suggestion! I actually never thought of it, and it's a really good idea. However, I already have something planned for Ruby, but don't worry, it will be just as satisfying, I promise. And don't worry about the glitch, it's happened to me when I posted reviews a couple of times.**

 **dickythamrin077: As much as it pains me to say this, they're simply going to remain friends, even though they would be very cute together. Also, concerning Yaoi/Yuri... if I ever do decide to make a Yaoi or Yuri pairing (and that's a really big if, I can't write gay fanfiction to save my life), it will be pushed to the background to focus on the other things this story will be covering. So, not much to worry about there. Thank you for the support!**

 **Solartiger: Are you taking about Maijima or Toshinori? Cause Torino gets mentioned in this chapter only as far as I know. *Maybe I mentioned him and forgot about it? Oh well.***

 **Disclaimer: I do not own RWBY or My Hero Academia. They belong to Monty Oum, Kohei Horikoshi, and their respective publishing companies. Please support the official releases.**

 **I do not own the cover image**

Chapter 12: The Endeavor of Ironwood

"Ironwood certainly loves to bring his work everywhere he goes," Glynda complained in a frustrated tone, obviously distressed about the number of ships and soldiers that he'd brought to Beacon in such a rush, and during the Vytal Festival no less.

She was standing inside of Beacon Tower, along with her coworkers, Shout Aizawa, Toshinori Yagi, and, of course, Ozpin. Though they stood inside of a rather large clock tower, they were all used to the noise of gearing clinking and clunking, hard at work to keep the clock face turning at a steady pace.

"Being the general of an army and the headmaster of a hunter academy does keep him quite busy. But yes, those ships are a bit of an eyesore." Ozpin commented, taking a brief sip from the mug of coffee he held in his hand.

"We know, Oz. The more pressing question is why the hell he brought almost half the fleet of Atlas to a _peace_ festival. Call me skeptical, but I think Ironwood is taking Qrow's message a little too seriously." Aizawa gave his two cents on the matter, obviously not very happy with the general.

"That's not what I think we should be worried about at the moment," Toshinori interjected, holding up his Scroll, displaying a message from his rival. "It's him. He's coming to the festival."

Glynda and Aizawa looked at him with shocked expressions, while Ozpin, though his was a calmer face than the rest, gripped his cane just the slightest bit tighter. Endeavor was coming to the Vytal Festival.

He never came to _any_ Vytal Festival before this, even when he was invited.

"What?! Several important people have invited him before, but he always refused! Why now?!" Glynda exclaimed, distressed at this sudden revelation.

"I think it may have to do with this year's lineup. His son and his team are going to be participating in the tournament. If he is coming here, then... this does not bode well for them."

They went silent at this. Enji Todoroki, father of Shoto Todoroki, was constantly regarded as a callous and unfeeling man, only showing emotion when it came to his self-proclaimed rivalry with All Might. The fact that he was coming to watch the Vytal Festival could only mean one thing for him.

He was going to display his son's power.

The Vytal Festival, while a celebration of peace, would also be a chance for younger Huntsmen and Huntresses to get noticed, and then later requested for more dangerous missions that offered higher pay. The better and flashier you performed, the more likely you'd get scouted. The Vytal Festival was the perfect place for him to move his plan into action, in front of thousands of people eager to see young hunters duke it out. But if Endeavor _did_ follow through with his plan, he would subsequently destabilize the positions of his son's teammates, only giving one of the four huntsmen in training the attention they deserved.

These thoughts were pushed from their minds when a blue hologram saying _Access Requested_ flashed across Ozpin's desk. The headmaster turned to the door, saying "Come in," opening the elevator door to his office, revealing the headmaster/general of Atlas, James Ironwood.

The fellow headmaster wore his usual attire, a white overcoat with a gray undercoat, black sweater, and a red necktie. His suit pants shared the same color as his overcoat and were tucked into silver boots that were accented in gray. His hair was black, with some silver and gray areas, while his eyebrows were solid black. He also had a strip of silver metal above his right eyebrow. For what reason, Aizawa did not know, though he suspected it may have had something to do with the glove that covered his entire right hand.

"Ozpin!" The general greeted his old-time friend.

"General." Ozpin curtly answered, obviously trying to show respect for the general,

"Please. Drop the formalities." Ironwood stepped over and shook Ozpin's hand. "It's been far too long, old friend."

Glynda then stepped over to the two headmasters, along with Aizawa, whilst Toshinori remained by Ozpin's desk, wishing to stay and hear what their conversation would bring up. Ironwood then unsuccessfully tried to flirt with Glynda, the latter of whom was clearly not interested as she and Aizawa left the office, obviously knowing that what was about to be discussed was not for their ears.

"She certainly hasn't changed a bit," Ironwood commented, his voice laced with the tiniest hint of disappointment.

"Well, she is who she's always been, the strongest huntress of her year. Even I'm afraid of her at times." Toshinori said, remembering her wrath all too well when she challenged him to a spar all those years ago. He'd won, of course, but she was probably the one who came closest to defeating him since... well, since Endeavor. In fact, if she hadn't given up her huntress life to be a college professor, she'd have probably taken a spot in the Big Four.

"Yes, she does give off a rather intimidating aura when she's mad," Ironwood commented in a joking tone, causing Toshinori and Ozpin to chuckle slightly.

"So, what brings you all the way down from Atlas? Headmasters don't usually travel with their students, even for an event like this." Ozpin asked Ironwood as he poured three more cups of coffee, handing one to Ironwood and another to Toshinori, the latter of whom muttered a brief "thanks" whilst the former poured something from his flask into his cup.

"Well, we all know I love Vale around this time of year. In Atlas, it's just snow, snow, and more snow. I thought it was time for a bit of a change of pace. I also thought that it would give all of us a chance to... catch up. Oh! And I recently heard that Toshinori got a teaching job here. Congratulations."

"No need. Torino had recently retired from teaching here, so the spot was open. It was just a matter of not getting this job out and into the public eye until I actually began working."

"While I'm not objecting to some quality time between friends, the small army outside my door does have me a tad bit concerned," Ozpin interjected before they shifted off of the topic at hand.

Ironwood's tone shifted to an apologetic one. "Oz... concern _is_ what had me bring them here."

"I understand that travel between the kingdoms is becoming increasingly difficult, but-"

"Oz... you and Toshinori both know why I brought those men."

Ozpin and Toshinori placed their mugs on the former's desk, while the latter said, "James, I know you're concerned about Qrow's message, we are too. But this..." Toshinori gestured outside, where most of the airships were currently docked. "… this is just going to give off the wrong impression."

"But if the message is true-"

Ozpin interjected once more, "If what he said is true, then we must handle it tactfully. The Vytal Festival is nearly upon us. It's a time to celebrate peace between the kingdoms. Transporting hundreds of soldiers across the continent, mechanical or not, will only have the opposite effect. It's going to make the people feel intimidated."

"I'm just being cautious."

"As are we. Which is why we will keep training the best Huntsmen and Huntresses we possibly can. They will be ready."

"I see your point." Ironwood began to walk towards the door, stopping in the center of the room as he turned back to the two most powerful Huntsmen he knew, and said, "But ask yourself this. Do you honestly believe that the children of our academies could win a war?"

"I hope they never have to," Ozpin replied to his fellow headmaster before he left the office, leaving only him and Toshinori alone once more.

"Phew! The tension there was so thick I could practically see it." Toshinori said, relieved that the earlier conversation was now over.

"I know. Actually, Toshinori, I've been meaning to ask you how your apprentice has been doing. So, how is he?" Ozpin asked as politely as he could.

"Well, we're really master and apprentice in name only at this point. I always expected him to break off from my shadow at some point or another, but not this soon. I give him advice when I can, but what with my job and all, I don't really have a lot of time to teach him anything."

"Well, at least you're still there to offer him advice. Does he know about-"

"No. I haven't told him about that part. Not yet. His isn't ready for it."

"And I doubt he ever will be, Toshinori. You'll have to tell him eventually."

"He's a child."

"He's older than you when you were taught what you're destined to face. And I also learned that he turned eighteen earlier this year. Not quite a child anymore." He took a long drink from his coffee mug. "He'll learn of this eventually, Toshinori. With or without your help."

 _(Beacon Library, 4:43 pm, after classes)_

"That was a good match. You're getting better already," Shoto said as he walked across the library with his usual neutral expression.

"Easy for you to say," Izuku said as he dragged his feet behind his teammate. They'd just gotten back from a long and arduous sparring match, one the Izuku had, obviously, lost. The deal was that they'd practice sword techniques for one hour, and spar for another. Rinse repeat, once a day, every day. This had gone on for about a week, and while Izuku was getting the basics of swordplay down to muscle memory, the progress of using those techniques in actual combat was... well, slow, to say the least. Shoto did not hold back, not even for a beginner like Izuku. As he said, he was getting better, it was just incredibly slow. But I digress...

Teams RWBY and JNPR were currently sitting in the library, the former playing a four-player board game whilst the latter was studying. Well, Ren and Pyrrha were studying, Jaune was reading a comic book and Nora was just sleeping. Izuku and Shoto eventually found their own teammates, the dire wolf faunus reading a book on ammo and explosives while their more studious teammate found solace in researching various architectural structures.

"Ah! Hello, you two. How was the training session?" Tenya asked his teammates as courteously as he could.

"It went well," Shoto said with a satisfied smile on his face.

"It was hell on earth all over again," Izuku said as he slumped onto a nearby couch next to Bakugo's chair, the explosive faunus so absorbed in his book that he didn't even notice his long-time victim laying directly across from him.

"C'mon, Izuku. Am I really that bad?"

"Yes, you are," he answered, too tired to notice his own out of character attitude.

"NOOOOOO, MY FEARLESS SOLDIERS!" They heard from Team RWBY's table as they played their board game rather loudly just a few dozen feet away from them. It was at this point that Bakugo slammed his book shut rather loudly, yelling at the girls, "SHUT THE FUCK UP ALREADY! SOME OF US ARE TRYING TO STUDY, DAMMIT!"

"HEY, WATCH WHAT YOU SAY TO MY SISTER, YA DAMN LIVING GRENADE!" Yang answered his profanity with just as much volume, if not even moreso.

Bakugo, however, wasn't intimidated in the slightest, only answering her with, "BRING IT ON, YA BLONDE BIMBO!"

Sparks flew between their eyes as they glared at each other with intense hostility that you'd think only the greatest of rivals could possibly possess. However, their stare off was then cut off when Tenya and Shoto interjected, the former facing Yang and the latter facing Bakugo. Tenya apologized to Yang for the outburst while Shoto gave his teammate a sterner glare than the ones Goodwitch could give, and they both backed down shortly afterward.

RWBY continued their board game at a more preferable pitch, though there were still cries of agony as Yang continued to dominate the board with her surprisingly rarely flawed strategies. Jaune, likely trying to find another way to flirt with Weiss, stepped over to the table and asked if he could play. Some banter between them ensued while STIK went back to their earlier positions, with Bakugo reopening his book on ammo and explosives, with Tenya sitting across from him, now entirely focused on his architecture book; Izuku was nearly out cold on the couch, and Shoto now approaching them with a tray that had four cups of coffee placed on it.

Izuku shot up at the smell of the godly aroma and shot over to where Shoto was standing at a speed that could easily match Ruby, and he hadn't even activated Full Cowl in the slightest. He held out his hands and asked his leader, "Coffee?"

Still a little shocked at Izuku's speed, Shoto still gave him what he asked for. Izuku then promptly thanked him and zipped back over to the couch he once laid on, drinking the refreshment in his hand in three large gulps. The green-haired boy then placed it down on the table and faced Shoto, thanked him for the drink, and zipped off and into the library to look for books on swordplay. As quietly as he could, of course. It _was_ a library.

"Did anyone else just see that?" Shoto asked his teammates.

Tenya pulled his eyes from his book and answered the best he could. "I honestly have no idea how he does it. Sometimes he moves so incredibly fast it's almost like he's slowing down time itself. I'd almost be challenged if he could do it at will."

"Wait, what do you mean?"

"I'm saying that whenever he does it, he's usually under some kind of emotional duress. I'm not meaning to suggest anything, it may just be a byproduct of his semblance, but-"

"I'm back!" Izuku practically appeared in the spot he'd zipped off from before, prompting all further conversation from Shoto and Tenya to cease, the latter giving the former a look that conveyed, 'We'll talk about this _later_ ,' as Izuku approached his leader to find out which of the books he held in his arms would suit him best now that he nearly had the basics of swordplay down flat.

"Hmmm... 'A Guide to the Sword' by Cloud Strife, 'Swords for Dummies' by Braun Arc, 'A Blade for Grimm' by..." Todoroki paused for a moment as he read the author of the last book, a flash of anger flickering onto his normally neutral face for just the slightest of moments as he remembered just where he'd seen the book before. He shook himself out of it, and handed Izuku the former two books, keeping 'A Blade for Grimm' at his side. He didn't want his father's words to corrupt another of his friends, especially not the ones that the man had written down in the book hew now held. He continued, "Read those two thoroughly. They'll help you much more than this one will."

"What about the other one?" Izuku asked, wondering why Shoto had deliberately taken away the third book. _He probably didn't even look at the author. Good._

"It's not a very good book. I read it back when I was training, it didn't help at all." Shoto pointed to the ones left in Izuku's hands. "Those two have information on all sword types, greatswords included. This one just spouts on and on about glory and rarely gives any advice on swordplay. Trust me, those are your best bet." Shoto then walked off to return the book to its proper place, though he scowled at the book as he faded into the rows of shelves.

 _When the tournament begins... I'll prove him wrong. I'll be the best without my other half._

While Shoto walked amidst the nearly never-ending shelves to put the book in his hands back where Izuku had found it, the aforementioned green-haired boy decided that it may be a good chance to ask Ruby to teach him how to use a scythe. He rose from his former seat on the couch and walked to RWBY still playing their board game, and was surprised to see Sun and Neptune standing near the table the board had been laid out upon.

"Oh, hey Greenie!" Yang waved to him as he approached, causing him to blush just the slightest shade of pink when he responded, "H-h-hey Yang!"

"What's up, Izuku? I thought you guys were studying." Ruby said after she greeted the blazer-wearing boy with a smile decorating her face.

"Well, I'm fairly sure Tenya's the only one studying right now. Shoto's putting a book back and Bakugo's-" a rather loud explosion echoed from behind Izuku, abruptly interrupting him as Tenya began yelling at Bakugo. "… doing what he does best..."

"I can see how that would make sense." Ruby said as she turned back to the game at hand, placing down a card and saying, "Grimm Battalion!"

"Trap card." Yang held up a card her own, rearranging the various Grimm figurines on the board once again, saying, "I now control all of Anima _and_ Mantle! I am unstoppaba-"

"Trap card." Neptune interrupted her victory speech, Izuku now realizing that the bluenette was in the seat that Blake once occupied, causing Yang to drop her hand of cards in complete shock, and screamed, "NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO! MY FEARLESS ARMIEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEES!"

"I'm betting at least half of them were androids."

"Goodbye, my loyal followers." Yang shed crocodile tears for effect.

Izuku sweatdropped at this action, though he quickly sobered himself and reminded himself why he was over there in the first place, turning to the red reaper at the table and asking, "Hey, Ruby? I have a favor to ask you."

Ruby turned to the blazer-wearing boy, saying, "Well, I'm out of the game right now, so I guess I have time. What's up?"

"I need you to teach me how to use a scythe. Could you give me a few pointers?"

"Sure! What did you need help with?"

"Well, I was wondering if you could..." Izuku and Ruby walked towards the nearby row of shelves and began talking about scythe techniques while the others once more resumed their game, with Weiss and Neptune now being the only players now that Yang and Ruby had been taken over by the aforementioned bluenette.

When Ruby and Izuku finished the specifics of what the former was going to teach, and she was going at a rather rapid pace, Yang, thoroughly bored of seeing Weiss blush like a child every time Neptune so much as looked at her, stood up from the table and walked over to the two of them, placed a hand on her sister's shoulder and said, "Whoa, calm down there, sis. You're gonna overwhelm him."

"Pfft. Naaaaaah. He's doing just fi-" She stopped speaking when she saw the abnormal number of notes that had piled up whilst she was blissfully gushing over scythe specifics. "I didn't give _that_ many tips! Did I?"

Izuku didn't even respond to the red reaper as he continued to scribble down the last few things that she'd said before Yang had popped in on their particularly one-sided conversation, finally popping up and replying, "Was there anything else you wanted to add?"

Ruby slumped over in defeat, muttering, "Never mind," before slinking back over to the table and sat once more, her eyes never leaving her feet the entire time.

"I'm sorry about that. Ruby can get a little... eccentric at times, especially when it comes to scythes."

"N-n-no need. S-she a-a-actually had some really g-good advice. Your sister could be a r-really great teacher i-if she slowed down a bit."

"Wait, I thought you could keep up with what she was saying."

"I-I only managed to understand about half of it. T-the notes I have here are all that I managed to remember."

The silence that ensued lasted a bit longer than was comfortable for either of them, so, the blonde brawler tried to pick another topic of conversation. "So... I heard you got shotgun boots now."

Izuku nodded in response. "Yeah, they were a gift from a friend. I'm not sure if I'm going to be able to use them all that much though. I mean, I'm trying to learn two new fighting styles! I really do want to learn how to fight with them, but I just might not be able to."

Yang quickly hooked her arm over Izuku's shoulder and tried cheering the boy up. "C'mon. I'm one of the best hand to hand fighters to ever graduate from Signal! You can learn how to use them, trust me on that!"

"W-w-wait, w-what are y-you saying...?"

"I'm saying that I can teach you how to kickbox, Greenie! I might not know how to use those boots you got strapped to your legs, but I can at least teach you how to throw around something more than wild punches. No offense."

"N-none taken." At this point, Izuku was as red as an apple, though Yang didn't seem to notice this, and if she did, she paid it no mind in the slightest.

"Great! Now we just gotta talk to Shoto and Ruby about your schedule!" Yang then grabbed Izuku and walked towards the table, where the former two were now conversing about Izuku's fighting styles.

 **A/N: I LIVE! Man, this actually took a lot longer than I thought it would to get done. Oh well, I hope you enjoyed it!**

 **And another question for you: Who is your favorite RWBY or My Hero Academia character? Lemme know!**

 **Also, I know that this chapter seems like it's a little tame, but that's what it's supposed to be. They're taking a bit of a load off, and relaxing before *SPOILER**SPOILER**SPOILER**SPOILER*! Goddamnit. Oh well, I guess you'll find out in the next chapter.**

 **Now normally, this would be where I'd put a profile for an MHA character. I was going to put Tokoyami here, but as I'm finishing this chapter, I've just realized that I haven't even started a draft on it. Sorry about that! I'll be sure to upload it with the next chapter! Speaking of which...**

 **Next Chapter: September 18th**

 **See you guys in the next one!**


	13. Painting the Town

**A/N: Well, this was a long time coming. I hope its length is enough to make up for the two-week absence. Enjoy the chapter!**

 **Also, there will be other POV's besides Izuku's this chapter! Shocking, I know.**

 **Edit (11/22/18): This was actually one of the lengthier edits I've done. In addition to the usual A/N deletions and rewordings, I made the conversation between Izuku and Yang a lot longer than it used to be. I hope it was a good addition!**

 **Review Responses (for the ones I didn't/couldn't directly message):**

 **FlamesOfJustice: I will! PLUS ULTRA!**

 **fernandamichelleraya: Those _are_ actually the reasons why he sees Ruby as a little sister. Nice deduction!**

 **Guest: He's my favorite too! He's the most relatable out of all the MHA cast, and the fact that he managed to get someone as famous as All Might to notice him for his actions is really inspiring. He actually makes me want to better myself, and that's not something that a lot of fictional characters can do very easily, if they can at all.**

 **JustSomeGuy: All for One _will_ eventually come into play for the main story, but he won't even be mentioned for a while. Yes, Izuku is going to become more powerful than his current canon counterpart, but that won't be until he meets Torino near the end of Volume 2. Yang won't exactly be teaching him Shoot Style, he still needs to figure that out on his own, she'll just give him a basis for it, which is, as she previously said, kickboxing. Also, nice pairing suggestion, but I already have something planned for Izuku. It's a good idea, just not something I can use since I've already planned out about half of the story in advance.**

 **Disclaimer: I do not own RWBY or My Hero Academia. They belong to Monty Oum, Kohei Horikoshi, and their respective publishing companies. Please support the official releases.**

 **I do not own the cover image**

Chapter 13: Painting the Town

Izuku put his hands on his knees, barely keeping himself upright as he panted incessantly, being incredibly tired after going for thirty minutes non-stop against Yang. The aforementioned blonde stood across from him with her arms crossed just beneath her bust, barely even tired as she simply stood there with a neutral expression on her face, one that he'd become rather accustomed to as they continued to train together.

Okay, time for some context. It had been another week since the meeting between Ruby, Shoto, Yang, and Izuku, where they managed to agree on a schedule that would give him time with all of them. Shoto would teach him on Monday and Tuesday, Yang would teach him on Wednesday and Thursday, and Ruby would teach him on Fridays and sometimes Saturdays when they weren't overloaded with homework. Sunday was their only confirmed free day, aside from the various holidays that were dotted throughout the year. But I digress...

Yang, taking pity on the green haired boy, uncrossed her arms and breathed out heavily, her usual grin returning to her face as she said, "That's it for today. Good hustle!"

Izuku, still not quite able to speak, simply gave his instructor a brief thumbs up before he fell onto his side in exhaustion. He never could beat Yang in combat class. Or Pyrrha. He hadn't fought Bakugo in ages, so that was still up for debate. And he definitely couldn't match Shoto or Ruby in terms of skill, he still had a long way to go before he could hope to match any of them in a one v one fight.

Yang walked over to her friend and sat him upright, briefly grabbing the coffee cup he kept in his bag and opening the top, passing it under his nose. Izuku's eyes shot open as he smelled the aroma of his favorite drink, causing him to uncharacteristically swipe the cup from Yang's hand and gulp down all of its contents in three swigs. He then calmly put the cup down and bowed slightly to the blonde brawler, saying, "Thank you for the coffee."

"Don't mention it!" Yang said in her boisterous tone as she sat next to Izuku, uncapping her own water bottle and drinking her fill.

Izuku looked down at his own empty coffee cup as he reminisced about the past week. Surprising both him and Ruby, he was actually quite adept with a scythe, able to master the basic movements and techniques with Gale in the first hour of practice. He didn't know how he was so skilled with Gale's scythe form, but when Shoto learned that little fact, he brought the hammer down _**hard**_. No, seriously, the training during the previous two days had been even more brutal than the previous week when Shoto was his only teacher; he could almost compare it to cleaning the beach all over again. Almost. Those months were their own circle of hell. Moving on...

"Holy crap, that was a match and a half. I wish I could talk to your dad. What's he like, actually? From what I've heard, you seem to be pretty fond of him. E-erm, not that you're a bad teacher or anything! You're actually a really good one!" Izuku quickly added to not hurt Yang's feelings.

However, the topic actually made her brighten up a bit more as she continued with a chuckle, "Relax, Greenie. You didn't say anything wrong. He's definitely a better teacher than I am. Besides, I think he'd like you. You're a lot nicer than some of my other friends. If they even were my friends...

"Well, that's nothing to worry about right now. Not to brag or anything, but he allegedly used to be one of the best martial artists in Vale, before he had me and became a teacher instead. He was... well, he was a hard teacher, that was for sure, but he was a good one. An amazing dad too. Didn't let me stop until my knuckles were blue, but he still loves Ruby and I to death. And he wasn't at all that fond of guys who looked at either of us in perverted ways."

"What happened to them?"

"I actually have no idea. Though I can personally say that I've put more than a few of them in hospital." Yang laughed at her own statement, while Izuku momentarily looked rather terrified, though he quickly shook himself out of it.

"I see... what about your mom? What was she like?"

Yang's face immediately went pale, her joyful demeanor from just seconds earlier completely vanishing. Her gaze trailed downwards and into her lap, causing Izuku to realize that he'd brought up a rather sensitive subject for the blonde brawler. "I-I-I'm sorry. You don't have to answer that."

Yang was silent for a few moments before she turned her head towards Izuku before she sighed and said, "Don't be. You didn't know," and the silence encompassed them once more, in a more uncomfortable way than the last one had.

"Well... on the subject of parents and parental figures, how about you?" Yang asked as she tried to salvage the situation they were in, simultaneously steering the conversation away from her mother. She wasn't ready to share that story. Not quite yet.

Izuku complied, saying, "Well, there's my grandparents. Grandpa's originally from far-eastern Mistral, but he fought in the Great War on Vale's side. Which didn't sit so well with the family he had back there. But he didn't really care all that much about hurting their pride or their feelings, even though they were family and it hurt like hell to leave them behind. He could see how the war was going down, and that Mistral was on the wrong side of history. A lot of people will say he's a brute, but he's actually pretty clever, and a great conversationalist. Even though he can't exactly speak Central Common that well. You'd like him.

"My grandma was born in western Mistral, but she was raised here in Vale. She was never one for fighting, but she loved learning everything that she could about... well, anything that she could cram into her brain, really. I still think she could answer almost anything I ask her about. And she's an amazing cook. Just don't get her mad. Even grandpa's scared of her when she gets mad.

"And then there's my mom. She's one of the kindest people I have the honor of knowing, and she's an awesome mom. She's always kinda been the rock in my world for as long as I can remember. She was there for everything I went through. I don't think I'd be here today if it wasn't for her."

Izuku's smile, however, was bittersweet, unlike the gigantic grin that Yang had held for most of the time she had talked about her father. There was obviously more to the story than he was letting on. The silence between the two was an odd one, and neither of them made to break it for several seconds. If Izuku wanted to talk about this, then he'd do it in his own time.

And, as it turned out, that was exactly what he did.

"I wasn't what most people would call 'strong,' as a kid. I know that it seems like something stupid to say, what with everything I can do now, but I wasn't. I couldn't even manifest enough of a soul signature to form even a basic Aura until about a year ago. Heck, I still don't think I'm that strong, especially compared to everyone else here. I've been playing catch up for the last few months because I... well, I never went to a combat school. Mom thought it was too dangerous. And I get why, but... I wanted to have a fighting chance to be on the same footing as the rest of you guys, and I just... I'm not sure I'm even supposed to-"

It was at this point in Izuku's rambling that Yang proceeded to lightly tap him on the head with a chopping motion, almost immediately stopping his speech dead in its tracks. She then removed said hand as she looked him dead in the eyes and said to him, "Hey. It doesn't matter where you started from. We've all got baggage we need to deal with sometimes. I've got my fair share, and so do Weiss and Blake. Hell, I'm willing to bet the same for everyone else we know. Besides, look at where you are now! You made it to Beacon! If anyone was doubting you before, you've damn well proven them wrong! If you weren't here, I think this place would be pretty damn different than it is for most of us, and not in a good way. You're the heart of your team, and you bring out the best in them; in a lot of us, just like Ruby and Nora can. Well, Bakugo's... Bakugo, but you get what I mean.

"So don't go thinking you're not supposed to be here, okay? You're here in spite of everything, Izuku. It's more than okay to be proud of that."

For whatever reason, Izuku couldn't even begin to think of one, Yang's speech had reassured him of most of the doubts he had, and would no doubt continue to have even after he graduated. She really cared. That fact alone was enough for him to crack a bit of a smile, and he could actually feel his heart skip a beat or two.

"... thank you. I think I needed that," Izuku said as he smiled back at Yang, who said, "Don't mention it, Greenie."

The silence between the two of them returned, but it wasn't nearly as awkward as it had been before. It was more understanding, and for a while, they simply stayed that way, the heat from their earlier match hanging in the air as they let their tired muscles and joints take a breather before they had to return to their rooms for the rest of the day.

...

"Hey, Greenie?"

"Yeah?"

"Do you think we could take tomorrow off?" Izuku's expression seemed to drop the smallest bit, causing Yang to stutter out, "N-n-no! You didn't do anything wrong! Ruby wanted to go see the CCT tomorrow, and I didn't want her to go alone, so the whole team's going with her so that she doesn't get lost. You know how she is with directions, hehehehehehehehehe..." the blonde brawler let out an awkward laugh as she finished her sentence, though her explanation did manage to brighten Izuku's expression somewhat.

"Oh! That reminds me!" Yang ran over to her gym bag and dug through it, eventually pulling out a white, plated half mask shaped like a diamond at the front with a loose strap attached to both ends of it.

The blonde brawler then walked back to Izuku and offered him a hand up, further explaining, "I think you mentioned your lack of armor a couple of times before, and I saw this the last time I was down in Vale. I thought you'd like it."

Yang presented the mask to him, a sheepish grin on her face as she tried to dispel the awkward tension she'd created a few moments earlier. Izuku slowly took the mask out of her hands and looked it over, his small smile slowly turning into a full grin as he put it on, though the strap was loosened too much for him to actually wear it properly, so it hung loosely around his neck as a result.

"It looks good on you," Yang observed, more than a little pride hidden in her voice. Izuku managed to stutter out, "I-i-it's awesome! T-t-thank you."

"Glad you like it! I'll seeya around, Greenie!" She then zipped up her gym bag and slung it over her shoulder before she walked out of the training arena with a cheery skip in her step.

Izuku's scroll then began buzzing rather loudly. He brought the device out of his pocket, finding that his leader was currently calling him. He answered the call, asking, "What is it, Shoto?"

 _"Do you think that you could cancel with Yang? Everything's ready, and tomorrow will be our only shot at this."_

"Actually, she called it off. Something about going to the CCT."

 _"What? Why would they go over there? If they need information, they could just make a request from the library."_

"Yang said Ruby wanted to see the CCT in person, and she didn't want her to go alone. It was a pretty rapid-fire explanation, so I don't think I caught everything she said."

 _"Well, it works out either way. Bring Gale. And your boots."_

"I know, I know. See you at the dorm."

He then hung up the call and walked out of the training arena, a determined gaze in his eyes and confusing thoughts about Yang clouding his mind in an oddly pleasant way.

 _(the next day, 4:38 pm, Team STIK's dorm room)_

Izuku, now done with a long and arduous day of classes, strapped Gale to the magnetic holster on his back, his teammates similarly equipping and holstering their own respective weapons as they prepared for a night of what Bakugo had nicknamed "Killer Hunting," which was itself ironic, since Stain's primary alias was due to the number of huntsmen and huntresses he'd killed.

Shoto stretched his arms above his head, and said, "I thought that class was never going to end."

"No shit. If Port ever goes on a tangent like that again, Four Eyes, do me a favor and knock me out," Bakugo said as he loaded his bracelet guns.

"I am not that barbaric, and you really ought to pay more attention to your seniors. You could learn a thing or two from his lectures," Tenya said as he tightened his greaves onto his legs.

Izuku remained silent as he draped the half mask Yang had given him the previous day around his neck, much to the confusion of his teammates, his leader asking him, "Where did you get that mask?"

Izuku promptly answered him, with a slight blush on his face, "Yang gave it to me yesterday."

His teammates had varying reactions to this. Well, Shoto simply asked if Izuku thanked the blonde brawler while Tenya gave a brief thumbs up and Bakugo facepalmed and muttered something incoherent into his hand. Something involving 'stupid Deku' and 'damn blonde bimbo,' or something to that effect.

A knock then sounded from the other side of their door. Shoto cautiously walked across to open it, and found Kirishima and Tokoyami on the other side.

They both wore their combat outfits, as did the rest of Team STIK, though Izuku now noticed a three-pronged claw mark emblem in an almost crimson red on the back of Kirishima's vest. Tokoyami's outfit, like Shoto's, was rather simple in its design; a black, zip-up jacket and a light gray scarf with a black feather emblem on both ends of it. He also wore a pair of black pants and gray combat boots, and on the outside of either thigh was a holster for a flintlock pistol/dagger combo.

Kirishima, a grin ever present upon his face, asked, "You called?"

"It's about time you got here. Now get in." Shoto said before ushering them inside, silently shutting the door behind them.

"Okay, let's go over everything we've planned so that we don't miss anything," Shoto said before he began the summary of the plan that the six had been putting together for the past week or so.

"Tenya, you, Bakugo, and Kirishima will go to Vale's main underground fighting arena. Information is more valuable than Lien there, so be sure to make the right bets and win when you can, but be sure to get as much info as you can remember. And don't die. Or kill anyone." He looked at Bakugo when he punctuated his last point, who said, "Fine. I'll try not to kill anyone."

"Alright. Now, me, Izuku, and Tokoyami will be going to the shady side of Vale a couple of miles from the main fighting ring. We've got a couple of leads on weapon dealers there; one of them could be Stains. I've also heard rumors of a certain info broker called 'Junior.' They say he knows about just about everything that goes on in Vale. With any luck, we should be able to pick up a trail and eventually get Stain behind bars. Maybe not tonight, but eventually. Right now, we need to get as much information on him as we can.

"But remember, he's stronger, smarter, and far more experienced than any one of us. If you encounter him, do not engage him alone; doing that's practically a death wish. The only chance we may have of defeating Stain is with all of us working together and overwhelming him. He might not be able to handle more than three opponents, according to you guys," he gestured towards Izuku and Tenya. "That's all we got. We leave in a few minutes. Any questions beforehand?"

The room was silent for several moments, inferring a lack of questions and extreme motivation. Satisfied with this response, Shoto's normally neutral lip line curved into the slightest of all smirks before he responded, "Good. We'll meet up later tonight near Vale Airport. Now then...

"...let's go hunting."

 _(two hours later, the main underground arena, Tenya's POV)_

The fighting arena was... well, it was a lot larger than Tenya was expecting. Nearly every seat held a spectator of some demeanor, all with gleeful smiles on their faces as they cheered for the next battle to begin. Tenya was, obviously, also spectating, while Bakugo and Kirishima, being the battle craving knuckleheads that they were, competed in the battles inside the arena as a duo, much to Bakugo's dismay.

"So, what are you willing to bet for the next fight?" The man with a black, hooded cloak next to Tenya asked. This same man had been Tenya's betting partner for the last hour, though the only reason he'd stuck with the man for this long was he'd heard a few whispers about him, and while they didn't include the man's identity, they did include the fact that he supposedly knew how to find Stain.

He answered, "I'll bet... the location of the Iida clan relics."

The man, though only his mouth was at all clearly visible beneath his hood, was clearly shocked that Tenya knew this information. However, this expression turned to a confident smile, saying, "Alright. If your favorite duo wins the next bout, I'll give you the information you originally came here for." He revealed a roll of parchment from the inside of his cloak, continuing with, "You want to catch Stain for the tragedy he brought upon your hometown... and your brother. Do you not?"

Tenya, shocked that the man had this information at all, whisper-shouted so that only he could hear him over the cheering crowd. "How do you know that?! I kept that a secret from everyone, even my own mother."

"That tidbit was... a recent acquisition." He put the parchment back into the folds of his cloak. "About two and a half months ago, you mentioned in an alleyway that Stain had killed your brother, and that the damage that had been wrought during their battle beforehand in Mistral had only been fully repaired last year. Naturally, I could only assume that you spoke of "Ingenium's Downfall." That would make you Tenya Iida, and the next in line to take up the Ingenium mantle. Am I wrong? Oh! And my condolences for your brother. Remnant lost a brilliant huntsman in him that day."

Tenya, while he was still slightly on edge, eased back into his seat, admitting, "Yes. I am the next to take up the mantle of Ingenium. Might I ask your name, sir?"

The hooded man chuckled at this statement, explaining, "Dear boy, I gave up my true name long ago. I cannot recall what it even began with now. You may, however, know me by another name. Thoth, perhaps?"

Tenya's eyes quickly widened yet again in shock. Thoth, as was the name most people referred to him by, was an incredibly famous information broker who appeared all throughout Remnant's underworld, though he mainly resided within Mistral, to sell information of varying degrees of value for two things: cold hard Lien, and new information on... well, damn near anything; as long as the information you brought was as valuable as the information that you wanted, there were no strings attached. Several famous criminals, business people, and even some huntsmen and huntresses had taken to using his services; the information was just that good.

"Are you truly _that_ Thoth?!"

"Indeed I am. However, I think that it will take a bit more than that to convince someone of your intellect. Do you remember the bouncers near the entrance of the spectator's area?"

"Yes. Why?"

"They're spies for the White Fang, specifically to take note of the fancy humans who come here to bet on fights. Did you and your colleagues give fake names?" Tenya nodded. "Good. That will make you much harder for them to identify. And that one, up there, behind us." He motioned his head slightly towards one of the guards by the start of the stairs. "He works for Junior. Tries to find some good people to recruit. Very bad judge of character, I assure you.

"And the young woman down there-"

"Is one of Roman's?"

"A good guess, but sadly, no. She is one of mine. There are a few more people here who work for the four of us. But I am the only one that has influence in all four kingdoms. Be thankful that you ran into me and not one of the others, or you'd already be in debt.

"But we're getting off topic. Now, the value of the information you've promised me is... well, quite frankly, it's too valuable to simply be exchanged for a way to locate a serial killer." He brought a shrouded hand to his chin, shifting into his thoughts as he worked out a solution. "I have a proposition for you. If your compatriots manage to win the next bout, in addition to the information you originally came for, I'll owe you a favor, redeemable at any time. Keep in mind that I do not make this offer lightly. So... do we have a deal?"

Tenya held no hesitation in his voice when he said, "I agree to your proposition." He had confidence that his friends would win. They hadn't lost a match yet, and he didn't believe they would start now.

All he had to do now was wait.

 _(five minutes later, locker room 5, Bakugo's POV)_

The ash blonde dire wolf faunus tapped his finger against his knee in a rapid tattoo of impatience and anger. At what? Need you even ask? At Shoto, at Stain, at the other contestants, but most of all, at Deku. No matter how hard he tried when he fought, he always seemed to relive that battle during the first sparring match of the year. This didn't so much stop him as it did cause him to go into a nearly unstoppable rage that wouldn't die down until he stopped fighting, and sometimes not even after that.

"Hey! Bakugo!" Kirishima practically yelled into his ear. The redhead wolverine faunus was having a much better time than his nearly edgelord counterpart, and, despite his reputation as a full-on brute, was actually fully willing to go along with anyone's battle plan, provided that the plan didn't put anyone in unnecessary danger. The fact that Shoto had even thought to invite the two was atrocious to him. This was supposed to be a team thing, damn it! Why did he have to go inviting other people to get in their way?!

"WHAT?!" He yelled at the boy, his anger obvious within his own voice and even moreso in his eyes. However, Kirishima hardly even noticed that it happened, and deadpanned, "We're up in two minutes. You alright?"

Bakugo stood up from his earlier position on the bench and walked past Kirishima, telling him, "Outta my way, porcupine."

"Well, at least you're ready to fight. And I'm a wolverine," Kirishima responded with the same grin on his face as he followed the ashen-haired faunus to the arena.

Their footsteps echoed off of the walls of the tunnel as they walked towards the entrance to the arena they'd fought in for the last four rounds. All victories of course. The clinking metal from Feral Blades' knuckles bumping against each other in their retracted mode as Kirishima cracked his own underneath his gauntlets caused Bakugo to check the cartridges on his own weapon, which were, thankfully, locked and loaded.

They emerged from their dark entryway to the arena, spectators of all kinds cheering for them upon their fifth arrival. The arena itself had an almost two story tall interior, made of smooth, slowly browning stone, the only gaps in the walls being the four archways, two of which had their gates down.

The loudspeaker overhead introduced them for their fifth round, allowing the crowd to cheer for them for a good twenty uninterrupted seconds. Kirishima practically bathed in the attention, waving to people as they chanted his and Bakugo's names. The aforementioned dire wolf faunus, however, didn't even acknowledge that they were cheering, instead glaring forward at the archway across from them, slowly opening up as their next opponents emerged from within. And, surprisingly enough, their next opponents were...

...Team CRDL? What the hell?!

Sure enough, every member of Team CRDL, or as Bakugo nicknamed them, the "Loudmouth Brigade," emerged from the now open archway opposite them, with the only really notable person in the entirety of their posse towering over the rest, his gigantic mace slung over his shoulder and his right hand carelessly draped over the handle.

"What the fuck are you dumbasses doing here? This where actual warriors come to fight each other, not you glorified punching bags." Bakugo asked as he gave them a casual glare, though it was enough to send shivers down the majority of their spines, except for Cardin, who was on a whole other level of moronic bravery at that point.

"Oh really? Cause the people we've fought here have been nothing but pushovers. Isn't that right boys?" His teammates all nervously made their own sounds of agreement, remembering the almost unhinged wrath of the ashen blonde across from them a few months prior.

Bakugo simply deadpanned, "How many rounds have you gone through?"

"Three!" Cardin stated a little too proudly.

"Four for us. And believe me when I say that you're nowhere near worthy of even licking the boots of the extras we've been dealing with, you smug fuckwit."

This caused Cardin the begin fuming in anger, causing his team to begin to back away from him as he slammed his mace on the ground, creating a crater that encompassed the aforementioned weapon. He then responded to Bakugo's insult, "YOU WANN BACK THAT UP, DOGS EARS?!"

"YOU BETTER DAMN WELL BELIEVE I WILL, SHIT-FOR-BRAINS!"

 _"LET THE MATCH BEGIN!"_

 **(A/N: Bombing King OST from My Hero Academia)**

Bakugo launched himself towards them with a brief but brilliant explosion erupting from his palms, reaching Russel in less than a second before he gave the lithe boy a straight uppercut to the jaw and an explosion assisted palm slam to his gut, sending him flying across the arena and into the wall, making a rather large indention when he did.

Bakugo held his arms in a wide stance near the height his knees, the fingers angled as if they had claws on them, and he taunted CDL, "C'MON!" his feral and berserker-esque look never leaving his face. Dove and Sky attacked him simultaneously, the former going for Bakugo's legs with his sword while the latter aimed to skewer him through with his halberd. He had no escape. At least, that's what they thought would happen.

Bakugo then made a standing b twist flip, dodging both of their attacks in the process, and mid-flip, punched Sky across his cheekbone, sending him tumbling across the ground. When Bakugo finished his flip, before Sky could even attempt to defend himself, Bakugo kicked him hard in the gut, sending him tumbli- okay, you get the point.

Cardin, seeing an opening where there wasn't anything of the sort, came behind Bakugo with his mace over his head, a battle cry escaping his lips as he brought it down in a heavy overhead swing, though Bakugo managed to dodge the strike and used the kinetic force of the impact to launch himself upwards and deliver a satisfying elbow strike to Cardin's exposed face, followed by a left hook to his jaw and an explosion assisted jab to his abdomen, sending Cardin flying back into the wall, his hand still having a death grip on his mace.

It was at this time that Russel came back into the fray, coming at Bakugo with his knives drawn to bare as he attacked the dire wolf faunus in a myriad of slashes and stabs, all of which Bakugo managed to avoid with extreme precision and, in some cases, luck. Russel made a rather mad gamble with one final skewer stab, causing him to overextend and giving Bakugo an opportunity to grab his arm, pulling him into a straight elbow jab that managed to almost break his nose, followed by another explosion assisted punch to the abdomen, again sending him towards the arena walls, ironically enough, landing in the same crater he'd made earlier, only this time he didn't climb out.

Dove then came at him with an upward vertical swing followed by a shot of the gun built into his sword, causing Bakugo to dodge and put himself directly underneath Sky's downward arc with his halberd. He dodged the strike and grabbed the shaft of Sky's weapon, wrenching it free of his hands and knocking him across the arena with a spinning strike. Dove the slashed at him in a sideways arc, which Bakugo blocked with the shaft of the recently acquired halberd he now bore, jabbing at him with the blunt end of the weapon and hitting him in the face, causing him to stumble backwards before Bakugo threw the weapon javelin style, hooking onto the shirt underneath Sky's armor and pinning him to the wall.

Now, the only two competitors left in the arena were Bakugo and Cardin, the latter glaring at the former with a nearly unquenchable rage. Well, Kirishima was still there, but he was just standing off to the side recording the entire fight.

Cardin was the first to charge, his weapon once more raised high above his head to attempt to strike Bakugo in reckless abandon. The dire wolf faunus simply held his hand out and caught the gigantic mace by the hilt, pulling Cardin closer and headbutting him, his hands losing their grip on his weapon as they shot up to his face to hold his painfully throbbing nose. Bakugo brought his free hand to the hilt of the mace, yelling, "HAVE A TASTE OF YOUR OWN MEDICINE, YA LOUDASS PRICK!" before swinging the mace at him baseball style, hitting him in the abdomen and sending him across the arena into the wall with a sickening crunch and a large crater around his body.

Bakugo breathed in and out slowly, looking at each of the opponent's he'd just felled. None were left standing. He'd won. So why didn't he feel satisfied? Why was the sense of defeat still lingering in the back of his mind?

He then dropped the mace he'd used to knock Cardin out of the fight, turning around and leaving the arena through the now open gate, a look of anger still ever present on his face.

 **(A/N: End Song)**

 _(spectator area, Tenya's POV)_

Thoth's mouth hung open in utter surprise. He didn't expect a full team of trainee hunter to win against the combined might of both Bakugo and Kirishima, but he didn't expect the dire wolf faunus to beat the team by himself, and in only two minutes no less!

Tenya, while he wasn't exactly surprised by Bakugo's actions, held a similar expression to the one that Thoth likely had under his hood. He quickly sobered himself, however, his business face returning to replace his expression of shock, and said to Thoth, "I do believe you owe me something."

Thoth turned to Tenya, his earlier face turning to a slight 'you got me' smirk, and replied, "Yes, I believe I do." He pulled out the roll of parchment he'd revealed just a few minutes earlier, as well as two small golden colored rectangles with the word **FAVOR** written on both sides in contrasting black.

"Why are you giving me two of these? You only promised one," Tenya stated, caught off guard by Thoth's rather unexpected gesture.

The information lord answered him, "Your teammate. He's done something that no one has done in a very long time. Quite frankly, he... surprised me. That extra favor I've given you is for him. I do hope that he continues to surprise people. Whether they'll be as generous as me... well, that's another story." He then stood up and began to walk amidst the crowd, but not before turning to Tenya and saying his departing words, "Good luck on your hunt... Ingenium." before he disappeared entirely, leaving the spectacled trainee huntsman to ponder what he meant and to retrieve his teammates from the arena.

 _(the shady side of Vale, 6:45 pm, Shoto POV)_

"Well, thank you again for your time." Shoto bowed slightly as they walked away from yet another weapons dealer empty handed.

As the door to the dealer shut rather loudly in front of them, Shoto punched the wall in frustration, which wasn't exactly something he was used to feeling. "Dammit! This is the fifth dealer! Why can't we find this guy?!"

"Calm yourself, Shoto." Tokoyami intervened, trying his best to calm the boy down. "We all knew that doing it this way was either a hit or miss, and we missed this time. That doesn't mean we can't take another shot."

Izuku then piped in, "And besides, we still have a backup plan. We'll just go to Junior's and try to get something out of him. And if I know Tenya and Bakugo at all, they won't accept coming back empty-handed."

"Yes, those two do seem particularly determined to catch this man. And since Kirishima's with them, I doubt anyone who stands in their way will be left unscathed. We ought to go see this Junior, even if it's just to confirm that he doesn't know anything."

Shoto, now thoroughly calmed and back to his usual neutral state, apologized to the two, "You're right. Sorry for the outburst. That was rather rude."

"No need to apologize. I'm kinda frustrated too. Now let's get to Junior's!" Izuku said as he began to walk out of the alleyway before Shoto called to him, "His club's the other way!"

"The right way this time!" Izuku said as he went in the opposite direction he began to walk in just a moment earlier, Shoto and Tokoyami trailing behind him.

They soon arrived at their destination, a nightclub called "The Black Bear Den." Loud but muffled music could be heard echoing from within, an odd sense of dread hanging about the entrance, the lack of bouncers clearly giving away the fact that something wasn't quite right.

As they entered the club, they noticed the fact that several bodyguards in matching suits were unpacking various proportions of alcohol, as well as what looked to be what was probably a pair of sisters; likely twins, judging by their hair color; in dresses that matched in all but color, one in black and red whilst the other was in white and icy blue, were glaring particularly harshly towards someone at the main bar. When the three turned to see who they were glaring at, Izuku in particular was shocked to find Yang and Neptune on the patron side of the bar, confronting the man who looked to be a match for the man they were looking for.

But, said man obviously didn't appreciate having his conversation interrupted, yelling to his henchmen, "See them out!" Which caused the nearby thugs to draw their weapons and drew the girls attention towards them, their own weapons coming to bare as they joined the thugs that surrounded them.

"So... one of you wanna take these guys, or should I?" Tokoyami asked the other two as they stood back to back, to which Shoto replied, "Let Izuku take care of it. I've been meaning to see how the training's been coming along."

"But there's twenty of them!" Izuku objected.

"That's the point."

Izuku then sighed in defeat as he drew Gale from the magnetic sheath on his back while Shoto and Tokoyami walked towards the bar, various fighting noises coming from behind them.

"What the hell?! I said-"

"Don't bother calling for anyone else. I'm pretty sure all the guys you've got on hand are rather busy at the moment." Shoto said as he and Tokoyami sat down on bar stools next to Yang and Neptune, the leader quickly realizing that the former of the two looked quite different.

Her new outfit consisted of a deep-collared cream vest worn over a low cut black shirt; both were covered by a dark gray shrug with a raised collar, three-quarter sleeves adorned with a single black stripe down the outside of each sleeve with gold cuffs and a black miniskirt was worn under the cream vest. A pair of crooked black belts with gold accents were slung around her hip, with a purple piece of fabric attached to the left-rear section of the lower belt. She wore thigh high stockings attached to her miniskirt by garter-belts on the front and back of each thigh, decorated with four golden studs above her knee and her emblem on the outside of each thigh in gold. She also wore black ankle boots with multiple buckles and white ribbons on the back tied in a bow. Around her neck was a purple pendant set in silver.

Junior then sighed in defeat and turned once more to Yang and Neptune, saying, "Look, blondie, iceberg. I don't know how I can possibly tell you this so that you'll understand, but I'll repeat myself just this once. I haven't seen or even spoken with Torchwick since the night you came in here and wrecked the place. He paid up front for some temporary manpower, I lent him my guys, and none of them ever. Came. Back."

"Are you talking about these guys?" Shoto pulled out his scroll with a list of everyone who'd been arrested during one of Torchwick's heists a few months earlier. Junior took the scroll from Shoto's hands, his eyes widening in recognition as he said, "Yeah. This is them. But why are you showing me this?"

"They're currently being held in the local prison on the northeastern side of Vale. If you don't get them out of there within the next few weeks, they'll probably be transferred all over Remnant." Shoto stated blatantly, not even acknowledging Junior's question.

The aforementioned information lord then restated his question, "Why are you telling me this?"

"Because I need something from you. Whether or not you'll get your guys back as a result of this deal, I don't really know or care." He then pulled out a dossier on Stain, or at least who he was before he became the enigma he was now, and continued, "I need everything you know on this guy," before he punched a spare thug out of the air without even looking, before shouting to Izuku, "Try to keep the fight over there please!"

"Sorry!" was Izuku's only reply before he brought Gale upwards to block the twin's respective weapons from slashing through his blazer.

Yang seemed to notice the difficulty he was having with the twins, and rose from her seat to help him out when she was stopped by Shoto when he grabbed her arm. "He needs to fight those two on his own. Don't worry, he'll win. They look to be easier than any of us were in Combat Class."

Yang opened her mouth to argue with the half and half leader before the howling of wind and the echo of buckshot shells caused the two pains in the ass that called themselves bodyguards to be smashed into the wall opposite the entrance of the club.

Izuku the snapped Gale to his back and walked over to the bar where the others currently sat with the exception of Yang, who he stopped in front of before awkwardly scratching the back of his head.

.

..

...

"So... the CCT?"

"Yeah... I'll explain that later." Yang said before she called to Neptune and walked over to the entrance, ready to leave the club before she yelled to Izuku, "Also, use your boots a little more. It should help you with your mobility problem."

Izuku promptly blushed as he nodded back to the blonde brawler before she and her slick companion waltzed out of the club with a look of frustration upon her normally rather cheery face. Shoto then gave his attention once more to Junior, his eyes once more widening in surprise as he read the dossier in detail. He then closed it and once more sighed heavily, telling Shoto, "Look, kid, I need to ask you something, and you gotta be honest with me, alright?"

"Sure."

"Why are you after this guy? He's a psychopath who's killed almost two hundred huntsmen. I can only think of two reasons for it, and neither of them are necessarily good. So, spill it."

There was a rather long pause between the two as he answered the information lord, "My friend's brother was one of his first victims. We're trying to catch him so that he can be properly incarcerated and hopefully never see the light of day ever again."

Junior then placed his head on one of his outstretched hands, muttering the phrase "Fuck it all," before he reached under the bar and pulled out what looked to be a map, and further explained, "This is all the places and weapon dealers he's gone to ever since he showed up in Vale. He's killed a lot of good people, and some of my guys were among his targets. Don't get killed." He then turned around and began to sort through the various alcohol bottles behind him, telling the three, "Now get out of here, before I change my mind."

Shoto then got up from the bar and left for the entrance with Izuku and Tokoyami trailing behind him the sound of a muffled explosion of shattering glass and the fading whirring of a Bullhead greeting them as they made their way back towards Beacon.

 **A/N: And that's a wrap! This chapter was going to be a lot longer than it is right now, but the only fight scene that actually made sense was the one where Bakugo kicked CRDL's collective asses in the arena, plus I felt that focusing too much on Izuku's tussle with the thugs and the Malachite sisters would've taken away from the main purpose of this chapter, which was to basically gather information on Stain.**

 **Also, a couple of questions for you, who do you think the leader of Team TAKT is, and who do you think was the inspiration for Thoth? Let me know!**

 **I hope you enjoyed the chapter! And as a bit of a treat for you guys, I've made profiles for Tokoyami and Stain! Here they are:**

 **6-Tokoyami Fumikage**

 **Age: 17**

 **Race: Raven Faunus**

 **BDay:10/30**

 **Handedness: Ambidextrous**

 **Hair: Black and Feathery**

 **Eyes: Red**

 **Blood Type: AB**

 **Height: 5' 5 ¼"/ 165.735 cm**

 **Gender: M**

 **Semblance: Shadow, allows Tokoyami to animate and control his own sentient shadow, which becomes stronger but less controllable in darker places, while the vice versa is also true in the light.**

 **Weapon: Celestial Legacy, a pair of basic flintlock daggers which, while not much, are incredibly deadly in the right hands.**

 **Range: Close-Mid**

 **Fighting Style: Tantojutsu**

 **7-Stain/Chizome Akaguro**

 **Age: 33**

 **Race: Snake Faunus**

 **BDay: N/A**

 **Handedness: Right**

 **Hair: Long and Black and Messy**

 **Eyes: Red/Brown when normal**

 **Blood Type: B**

 **Height: N/A**

 **Gender: M**

 **Semblance: Bloodbind, allows Stain to bind a person in place with their own blood, though the effectiveness of this power can depend on several factors, including the number of people under the control of it, blood type, whether or not he's engaged in combat, etc.**

 **Weapon: Bloody Reign, an odachi sized katana with a rough and worn-down edge and various bits taken off of the edge.**

 **Range: Close**

 **Fighting Style: Kenjutsu & Instinct**

 **That's all for now, guys! See you in the next one!**

 **Next Chapter: Oct 1st**


	14. Dance Dance Preparation

**A/N: Now I know that most of you, if not all of you, are expecting me to try and cover the entirety of what I like to call the "Dance Trilogy" in a single chapter, and while I might be able to do that if I really crunched for time, the buildup to the final episode of the arc isn't something I can rightly ignore. So, I'm sorry to say that you'll have to wait a little bit for dance. But I'll do everything I can to make it as enjoyable as possible, that I will promise you.**

 **There's no music for the fight scene in this chapter. It's not really that tense in the overall scheme of things, even though it does change up the canon a little bit. That's just how low stakes this fight is. Even if Mercury can be a downright asshole sometimes. That and I couldn't really find a song to fit with the mood of the fight. If you have any story or music recommendations for me, let me know! As I've said before, I try to read and respond to all the reviews I get, provided I have the time and can actually respond to you. I appreciate them all, even the ones that criticize my work for its short comings. Speaking of...**

 **Edit (11/26/18): It's the same as usual. Not much to change here.**

 **Review Responses:**

 **Red John: That's actually a really cute ship, and one that I've had on the brain for a while now. But, as much as it pains me to say this, they haven't really had much interaction other than that one time when he got CRDL off her back, so as much as I want them to end up together, they don't have any chemistry to go off of, so at this point it wouldn't make all that much sense. Plus, CFVY's on a mission during the dance, so it would probably break the canon too. Sorry!**

 **Also, we've cracked the 100-follower mark! Thank you all so much! I'll continue to try and earn your support!**

 **Disclaimer: I do not own RWBY or My Hero Academia. They belong to Monty Oum, Kohei Horikoshi, and their respective publishing companies. Please support the official releases.**

 **I do not own the cover image.**

Chapter 14: Dance Dance Preparation

The sound of the arena buzzer sounded throughout as Pyrrha stood up from another battle as the victor, her opponents lying in painful defeat, both metaphorical and literal. Team CRDL, well, Cardin specifically, had challenged the invincible girl to a sparring match with his entire team. She courteously accepted, and then proceeded to kick all of their asses, much like Bakugo had previously in the underground arena, only in a much quicker fashion. This caused the explosive faunus to almost immediately thereafter begin to shout and swear challenges at her which were thankfully muffled by Tenya. At least before Goodwitch heard any of them, thank Oum.

Context time! After last week's info hunt, where he, Shoto, and Tokoyami had run into Yang and Neptune, they confronted Team RWBY about what they were actually doing and, as Yang promised, they explained everything. They were gathering information as well, but on an enemy of a different kind. The White Fang and Torchwick to be precise. Apparently, after a rather heated debate amongst the four of them, they agreed that they needed to stop whatever the two were planning as soon as they could, and while the others were rather hesitant to reveal any details at all, Yang told them all she knew on the matter, which wasn't much more than the fact that Torchwick had brought another henchman into the field by the name of Neo, and that he was somehow getting ahold of advanced Atlas tech and weaponry before it was released for public use. But I digress...

"Okay. I know that display would be hard to follow up, but we do have time for one more match. Any volunteers?" Goodwitch asked the class, her eyes settling on Blake as she continued, "Miss Belladonna? You've been rather docile these past few classes. Perhaps you could-"

"I'll do it." A silver-haired student near the top of the spectator's area interrupted her mid-sentence, a cocky smirk ever present on his face. He sat next to two of his teammates, a girl with dark skin and crimson eyes, and a boy with a hooded black jacket pulled over his head and cloth half mask that obscured most of his face, the only visible part of his face being his heavily lidded turquoise eyes. Izuku didn't know who they exactly were, but he did know that they were absolute monsters in combat, if their very brief sparring matches were anything to go off of. They didn't even use their semblances. He couldn't remember their leader all that well either, and she'd only sparred once in the time since they'd arrived at Beacon; however, she was ridiculously strong, and while she put on a pretty smile, seeming to be the best kind of trustworthy, Izuku, despite arguing with himself for a full thirty seconds on the matter, couldn't help but feel that something wasn't quite right about her. Moving on...

His attention was drawn back to Goodwitch as she continued, "Mercury, right? Well, let's find you an opponent."

"Actually, I wanna fight... her," he objected as he pointed to Pyrrha, who was still standing within the arena barely even winded.

The aforementioned redhead warrior blankly asked "Me?" in surprise, obviously not expecting an outright challenge from someone, especially not after the display she'd just put on.

Goodwitch, obviously concerned for the boy's health, objected, "Miss Nikos had already finished a match. I recommend you choose another partner."

"I concur," Shoto stated, surprising almost everyone there with the exceptions of a few of his primary classmates, his partner too absorbed in his own notes to notice what the boy had just said.

"Does the mean you will be fighting Mercury, Mister Todoroki?" Goodwitch inferred.

"No. But I do know someone who should." Immediately after he said this, he turned to Izuku and tapped him on the shoulder to get his attention. The green-haired boy then looked up at his, and Shoto promptly pointed towards the arena and simply stated, "You're up."

Izuku glanced towards the arena, where Pyrrha had just left and Mercury now stood in her place. He then stood up and shuffled towards the arena entrance, grabbing Gale from his locker as he went.

Now, it may have seemed like Izuku was being calm, collected, and maybe even a little cold, making Mercury just the slightest bit scared. But only slightly. However, on the opposite end of the spectrum, Izuku felt that he was in completely over his head, since being pulled into the fight the way he was prompted a total internal analysis and subsequent breakdown of his chances, which were, in his biased opinion, not very good. And one thought raced through his mind on that arena floor more than any other at that moment.

 _Sword or Scythe?_

If you repeated this line once every half second, you could probably get close to the speed of how fast this thought was repeating itself in his head before the buzzer sounded the beginning of the match. Mercury dashed towards Izuku with a loud boom emanating from his boots as he jumped into the air and raised his leg to deliver an overhead ax kick, which Izuku barely managed to dodge before it landed where he stood not half a second earlier, a crater lined with buckshot appearing beneath his opponent's foot. Izuku, now in full on panic mode, brought Gale off his back and in an instinctual fashion, thought, _Scythe! Use the Scythe!_

Using Gale, still in its greatsword form, he made a wide sideways arc, causing Mercury to jump backward to avoid the blow that would've cost him almost a quarter of his total Aura. Izuku then shifted Gale into scythe mode, the blade curving inwards to form the primary blade before the handle extended to its full length, making it a rather simple yet intimidating looking weapon.

The two then began to slowly circle each other, Izuku gripping his scythe life a lifeline with the blade angled behind him while Mercury held a composed but rather loose looking boxing stance. They then both charged at each other, Mercury opening the fight with a straight side kick that Izuku ducked under while he made multiple attacks with all the angles he could use, from spinning Buzzsaw arcs to the simplest of quick jabs and slashes, trying to hit his opponent with either end of the scythe.

Mercury dodged all of his attempts, though one of the of them nearly managed to cut his hair, and made some acrobatic moves backwards, giving him room to once more breathe. They only paused for a few seconds as Izuku charged this time, his strikes matched by the force of Mercury's shotgun boots as they held their active standoff for four seconds before Izuku managed to graze him with the blunt end of his scythe, pushing him back about ten feet. Mercury then gave Izuku that said "better than I thought," though the green haired boy, still not having a whole lot of experience with sarcastic praise, was only confused at the gesture.

He didn't have much time to be confused, however, as Mercury launched himself at him with an overhead spinning axe kick that Izuku blocked with the handle of his scythe, which was then followed up by three roundhouse kicks, one aimed at his legs causing him to jump, barely managing to block the second one with the handle of his scythe and backflip out of the range of the third, landing in a crouched position while he held his scythe in a readily defensive stance.

Mercury at him again, jumping into the air once more to deliver three rapid-fire kicks that the blazer-wearing boy just barely managed to block, which was followed by two more spinning side kicks and a back kick, knocking Izuku's scythe from his hand. Not letting up, Mercury aimed for Izuku's now exposed face as the boy began to reach for his scythe, an action that Izuku quickly turned into a block. Seeing an opening, Mercury performed a twist b flip and kicked Gale away from Izuku, the blade of the weapon embedding itself in the wall to his right.

Mercury tried to finish the fight with a reverse roundhouse kick that Izuku, with Full Cowl activated, effortlessly blocked by grabbing Mercury's calf with his left hand. The silver-haired boy's eyes widened in surprise, but Izuku gave Mercury no time to sober himself as he jerked his leg back, putting him on the floor before he raised his right fist above his head, ready to give Mercury a pile driver punch when, mid-strike, he forfeited.

Izuku managed to stop his punch only three inches away from Mercury's face, a loud boom echoing throughout, followed by a dust cloud rising from the arena floor. Izuku then opened his fist to offer his opponent some help getting up, which Mercury took with a sheepish grin on his face.

"The winner is Izuku Midoriya. Wonderful performances from both of you. Though I must ask, why did you forfeit, Mercury?"

The silver-haired boy in question simply shrugged and stated, "He's a lot better than he looks. I actually think he could take on Pyrrha Nikos."

Izuku immediately began to stammer at the unexpected praise, barely managing to deflect his assumption. "I-I-I'm nowhere n-near h-h-her l-level."

"I disagree." Pyrrha objected as she hopped down from the spectator's area. "You've gained much improvement since your first spar. I daresay you could be stronger than me someday."

"See? The woman herself thinks you could take her. Now, I honestly don't know who would win in that fight, but what I do know is that you're _definitely_ stronger than me." Mercury said with his usual sarcastic smirk and a nonchalant shrug accompanying his words as he exited the arena, leaving Izuku alone as he struggled to pull Gale out of the wall, declining help from Pyrrha as he pulled on the handle of his rather heavy weapon.

 _(six hours later, Team STIK's dorm)_

"I think that was, quite possibly, the longest lecture I have _ever_ had to sit through," Shoto said as he slumped onto his bed, his seemingly unbreakable monotone now slipping due to sheer exhaustion. The rest of his teammates were in similar positions, though they had to drag their explosive friend up with them since he'd passed out halfway through Port's class and none of them could wake him up. Well, Izuku didn't want to take the chance of getting blown up, so that was a part of it.

Tenya shifted around until his back was facing his mattress, saying, "For once, I can agree with you on that front. It had no academic value whatsoever. I hope that things will be different after the break."

Izuku managed to prop himself up on his elbows and sit himself up, which his conscious teammates attributed to his massive amount of stamina, and said, "Speaking of, the Vytal Dance is this weekend. Do I have to-"

"You're going." Shoto and Tenya synched in monotone, Izuku paling at the prospect of a social gathering.

"But-"

"It's mandatory," they synched once more, the finality in their voices leaving no room for argument. Izuku then sighed in defeat and dropped back onto his bed, praying that one of them wouldn't pop the question he so desperately didn't want to answer.

Unfortunately for him, that's exactly what Shoto did, asking his teammates, "So, does anyone have a date for the dance?"

Izuku went completely silent as he contemplated how to answer this question while Shoto and Tenya talked about their own plans for the dance. The two seemed fine with going to the dance alone, seeing as they'd proven to be invulnerable to all the girls who'd asked to accompany them to the event; but their green haired teammate was going crazy with nervousness, specifically because he did have someone he wanted to ask to the dance. A certain blonde brawler to be precise.

He began to blush at the mere thought of her, shifting his face towards his pillow in order to hide his slowly reddening face from his teammates. They took note of this sudden action but continued their conversation regardless.

Izuku recalled his spars with Yang, the way she always seemed to smile or crack a joke in the heat of intense battle, her beauty matched only by the might of her fists. Her golden hair shining in the early dusk as she helped him off of the training arena floor with a kind smile that reached far past her eyes. The way she encouraged him even after tripped on his own shoes for more than half an hour while he tried to perform the basic combinations, her dumb jokes that always managed to make him laugh, her boisterous nature and the caring honesty she gave all her friends, even Weiss. She was... well, he thought that she was out of his league. And yet...

 _Why can't I stop thinking about her?_

It was at this thought that Shoto had ironically decided to see if his partner was alright, prodding the young boy to try and get his attention, which proved itself to be a futile effort as he shifted closer to the wall near his bed. He then asked, "What's wrong? You're looking a little down."

This only caused his teammate to shift even further towards the wall, which tipped Shoto off to the fact that Izuku had something in his head that he didn't want to share. However, Shoto also knew the consequences of bottling up secrets until they couldn't be hidden anymore, so he figured that he might as well have at least one person to confide it in.

He then turned to Tenya and gestured to him to take Bakugo and leave the room. When the spectacled boy asked why, he said, "This should probably stay between me and Izuku." Tenya nodded in understanding, carefully lugging Bakugo's unconscious body off of his bed, over his own shoulder and out of the room, presumably to the library.

Shoto then rose up from his own bed and walked over to the edge of Izuku's, staying there for a few seconds as he silently let his partner recognize his presence. Izuku then slowly shifted away from the wall and sat next to his leader the silence making the situation all the more uncomfortable.

Tired of the aforementioned lack of sound, Shoto asked him outright, though with a little empathy added to his normally neutral tone. "What's on your mind? Is it about the dance?"

Izuku didn't speak, opting to instead go the silent route and nodded. Shoto's expression softened as he continued, "Well, why? Are you scared?" Izuku nodded again. "Of what?" Izuku froze as his face began to redden once more, hiding his head behind his knees to hide the effect, though Shoto obviously noticed this and became a bit more concerned. Izuku slowly took his head away from his knees as he felt his blush recede, the expression on his leaders face clearly expecting an answer.

Izuku, albeit reluctantly, answered Shoto's looming question. "I... I want..." He hesitated, choking on his own words before he finally managed to blurt out in a whisper, _"I want to ask Yang to the dance."_

"Hmm?"

"I said I want to ask Yang to the dance!" Izuku yelled in frustration, almost immediately covering his mouth at this out of character action and curling up into a ball once more.

Shoto, however, was hardly even surprised. He simply sighed in realization, saying, "Well, at least you finally realized it."

Izuku then looked towards his leader in surprise, asking, "What's that supposed to mean?!"

"It means you finally realized the obvious." The two sat in silence once more, though the air carried a friendlier tone than it had previously. Shoto broke it again with another question. "So, what's got you so nervous? If you want to ask her to the dance, ask her to the dance."

"I know, and that's not the problem. It's just... I'm afraid I'll get rejected. I mean, she's totally out of my league, and she's probably having to punch guys in the face just to give herself some breathing room. What chance have I got if-"

It was at this point that Shoto got tired of listening to Izuku's self-deprecating speech and smacked him upside the head. As his partner rubbed the back of his scalp in confusion, the half and half boy began a little speech of his own. "Quit thinking like that. It's only going to make you even more nervous. Look, asking someone to a formal event of any kind, especially one as big as this, is very hard to do; trust me, I know all about that part of life. But look, if you never expect yourself to fail at something at least once, then you'll never succeed later on.

"So just ask her. No suave moves, no overcomplicated schemes that will likely begin to fall apart at the first step, just ask. Although I'm pretty sure the former isn't something you'd manage to pull off."

"That's true," Izuku admitted with a slight chuckle. He then stood up from his bed and walked to the door, stopping just before he left as he turned around to face Shoto once more, asking, "Why are you going to the dance alone? There must've been dozens of girls pining for you."

Shoto gave Izuku the first smile that was larger than the slight smirks he always gave to his teammates, and replied, "Because, in that regard, I've already got someone waiting for me back home in Atlas. I made a promise to her, and I'm not about to break it."

"I see." Izuku smiled at his leader's happier expression before he asked, "What's her name? If you don't mind me asking, that is." He hastily added to the end of his sentence, a nervous chuckle punctuating it.

Instead of the stern no he was expecting, Shoto simply looked at the slowly descending sun and answered his partner's question. "Momo. Her name is Momo Yaoyozoru."

 _(thirty minutes later, dorm building hallway)_

Izuku walked down the dimly lit halls of the dorm building in the now fading auburn hue of the sunset, and he felt even more nervous than he had been before. His thoughts trailed towards the fear of rejection and embarrassment constantly, and sometimes they bordered on complete and total social rejection as well as that of the romantic kind.

However, as he remembered the advice given to him by his leader a few minutes earlier, Izuku realized that he was overexaggerating the consequences of this action he would soon perform. Why was he so anxious that he walked around the dorm building to specifically avoid Team RWBY's dorm for the past half an hour anyway?

.

..

…

Actually, don't answer that.

As he broke from this train of thought, he accidentally bumped into Blake, who was stomping rather uncharacteristically loudly towards the library in a rare moment of what looked to be frustration, the bags under her eyes indicating that she hadn't slept for what was implied to be entire days. Although Izuku wanted to help the cat faunus, despite not being all that close to her, he could somehow sense that if he even tried to start a conversation with the girl, he'd more than likely get his head bitten off. Metaphorically, of course.

Izuku then rounded the corner to RWBY's dorm room, he saw Jaune outside of the aforementioned room, strumming at the guitar in his hand as he began to serenade a song that sounded so cheesy even Izuku didn't like it. It was only a split second later when Izuku heard the door to the room slam in Jaune's face. The blonde wouldn't give up, however, and began knocking on the door, asking for a chance to explain himself, even promising that he wouldn't sing, though he kept the guitar in his hand despite these words. He proved himself to be lying when he began another serenade, both with the same goal: ask Weiss to the dance. Unfortunately for him, she appeared to not be interested in the slightest and slammed the door in his face a second time.

A ghostly sigh escaped the nonexistent lips of Lancelot as the traditional knight's helmet that was his head materialized next to his master, saying, _**"I told you this wouldn't work. If you wish to court the young mistress, you ought to do so when you know more about her other than her name and the fact that she's incredibly beautiful."**_

"And what would you know about romance, Lance? " This was the pet name that Jaune had taken to calling his aforementioned Fable as payback for always calling him 'master,' which the ghostly warrior, rather than being offended by it, took a liking to, and actually insisted that close friends of Jaune's, like Izuku and Pyrrha, call him by that name instead of his full title. It was easier to say than Lancelot at least. But I digress...

 _ **"More than you do, apparently,"**_ was Lancelot's response, his neutral tone never dropping from his voice. This was all kinds of ironic, seeing as Lancelot was a warrior born of Jaune's own strength of will and Aura, and yet he _still_ knew more about the opposite sex than his master did. The gods were not kind to the boy.

As the two walked down the hallway, Jaune having a one-sided argument with his own Fable, the latter of whom only responding in kind, Izuku walked over to the entrance of Team RWBY's room, noting that Yang's other two teammates were likely still in the room with her. A slight pink shade dusted his cheeks just a slight shade below noticeable as Izuku nervously reached out towards the pale colored wooden door and rapped his knuckles against it, making an audible though rapid tattoo.

"I TOLD YOU, NO!" Weiss' yell echoed from within the room to answer Izuku's knock, obviously believing that Jaune was back to try to ask her to the dance for the third time. Izuku managed to shakily speak up, saying, "I-it's not Jaune."

The door then flung itself open, revealing Weiss with a rather doubtful look on her face as she looked to the left and right, making sure that Jaune wasn't anywhere near them, and when she was done, grabbed Izuku and pulled him into the room in a rather uncharacteristic moment of sudden strength.

Izuku, knocked off balance by the sudden movement, stumbled and fell on the carpeted floor, a rather confused looking Ruby and Yang staring at him as Weiss once more slammed the door, not willing to take any chances of Jaune coming back.

"So, why are you here, Midoriya?" The ice princess said in her usual cold tone, causing Izuku to flinch as he briefly recalled the explosion he'd accidentally caused as her lab partner in Dust class. He quickly sobered himself, however, and stood up from his earlier position to say to them, "I need to talk with Yang about something."

"Okay. Talk away."

"I-I meant in private?"

Weiss raised her eyebrow in confusion for a few seconds before she managed to connect the dots, a look of realization coming onto her face. She then turned to Ruby and grabbed her by the hood, saying, "You have ten minutes. If you take any longer, I'll turn you into a pincushion," before she dragged her teammate out the door and beelined down the dorm halls, the caped young girl struggling against Weiss' uncharacteristically strong pull the entire way.

Izuku sweatdropped at the girl's actions before he turned to face Yang, who now stood just a few feet away from him with a kind expression painted on her face. This only caused Izuku's blush to deepen further, though the blonde brawler hardly seemed to notice.

Taking a deep breath to calm himself, he stuttered out, "Y-Yang? I-I was w-wondering if... m-m-maybe, y-y-you c-could go t-t-to the dance with me? Y-y-you don't h-have to i-i-if you don't w-want to. I j-just-"

Izuku never finished his sentence however, as Yang pulled him into a rather tight hug, his protests nonexistent as he slowly but surely returned the hug. He wasn't sure why she'd initiated the hug, but he wasn't about to complain, relaxing into her hold as he wandered his own thoughts.

On the opposite end of the spectrum, Yang was beginning to blush. She never blushed. Ever! Not when the hottest guys at Signal asked her out, only for her to punch them where the sun didn't shine when their hands went where they weren't supposed to go; not when she was embarrassed for the first time in kindergarten; hell, not even when she shamelessly flirted with a few of those same guys before she punched them in the balls; it didn't have any impact on her. Ever! So why the hell was she blushing now?! It was just an offer to a dance from a guy she thought was kinda cute-

Yang mentally slapped herself out of it and let go of Izuku, backing away half a step and stared up into his emerald eyes and searching for a reason. What she found were fear and respect. Izuku was one of the only guys she'd ever met who didn't tirelessly lust after her. He was just as scared as she was, likely even moreso. And so, she answered his question, "I'd be honored to go with you, Greenie," with one of the largest grins Izuku had ever seen her give. It soon dropped as she explained her predicament. "But I gotta get Blake to go to the dance before I can promise anything. Plus, I've still gotta help prep the actual dance."

"I could help with that." Izuku blurted out before reducing himself to a quick talking mess once more. "I-I mean, if you want my help that is, I mean I know it might be kinda overwhelming, what with the fact thatTeamCVFYleftforamissionalittlewhileagoandthey'renotgonnabeheretofinishwithallthedanceprepsoyouandWeissgotthejobpushedonyouandIwaswonderingiftherewasanythingIcoulddotohelpout-"

"Greenie!" Yang raised her voice, drawing attention to the fact that Izuku was beginning to go off on one of his mumbling tangents. Izuku, still a little flustered, apologized for the sudden outburst, though Yang simply waved it off and said, "It's fine. I would really appreciate your help with the dance. But like I said, I have no idea how to get Blake to go to it."

"Wait, does this have anything to do with why she looked so tired earlier?"

"Yeah. Wait, how did you know that?"

"I-I-I bumped into her earlier."

"Oh. Well, she's become over-obsessed with busting Torchwick and the White Fang ever since he got away last week. And, you know, fought us with a ten-ton robot the size of a house." Yang chuckled at that, as did Izuku, though they both quickly sobered themselves as she continued, "I'm getting worried about her. Obsessing over Torchwick and the White Fang to this extent is becoming really unhealthy for her."

Izuku sat down on Weiss' bed, his hand on his chin in a thinker position, closing his eyes as he went into a deep analyzation state. _Okay, if we're going to get Blake to go to the dance, we need her to realize that she needs to take a break, or at least help her slow down enough to get some rest. Well, we could try and force her to go, but that would just make things worse. I don't think she dislikes the dance itself, maybe just the fact that everyone else is taking a break now that it's happening. Maybe if we can convince her that her team hasn't given up on their plan to stop them, she should agree to go to the dance. Hopefully._

Izuku opened his eyes and rose from Weiss' bed, saying, "I think I know how to get Blake to go to the dance."

He then began explaining his plan to confront Blake to the blonde brawler, his tangent continuing even after Weiss and Ruby finally came back to the room, the two listening attentively to his plan.

 _(same dorm hall, Team CDEM(Condemn)'s dorm)_

"And finally, we have Pyrrha Nikos," Emerald said as she listed off the last student on the possible major threat list. The aforementioned mint haired girl sat in the middle of the floor with her scroll on hand while Mercury laid next to her on his back, reading a comic book held in a loose grip over his head. Their 'official leader,' Cinder, sat above the rest of them on her bed with her legs crossed in a seductive manner, her elbow propped up on her thigh as she held her head in her outstretched hand, a clear authoritative position to be sure, and her demanding gaze completing her pose and almost making her look like royalty.

Dabi simply sat against the wall next to his leader's bed, not really giving a damn about Cinder or her authoritative sitting position, instead opting to clean and sharpen Purgatory while he simultaneously listened to the conversation between the three across from him.

"Ah, the invincible girl," Cinder said in recognition.

"She's smart, fast, and definitely stronger than just about everyone else here. I think invincible is pushing it," Mercury responded to Pyrrha's title, denouncing its accuracy immediately.

"Do tell." Cinder removed her head from her hand, her interest now piqued at Mercury's inquiry about one of the most dangerous of their possible hits.

"While I didn't actually get the chance to fight her, she did seem to manipulate CRDL's movements fairly easily." He then sat up, laying the comic book down at his side. "She seemed to have a much easier time with the armored ones too. I think her semblance has something to do with manipulation of... well, something."

Without looking up from Purgatory, Dabi quipped in, "Ferrokinesis. That's her semblance in a nutshell."

"And just how have you come to that conclusion, Dabi?" Cinder asked the boy, her distaste for her teammate ever-present within her voice.

"For one, Mercury already pointed out that she had an easier time dealing with her armored opponents: _metal_ armor. The second is the fact that if you watch her movements closely enough, you can see that she doesn't just broadcast her power, even though she could likely take on an incredibly skilled huntsman or huntress if she did. By keeping her semblance a well-guarded secret, it puts all of her enemies at a disadvantage before they even fight." He flicked Purgatory's bullet chamber closed and extended the blade, pulling a whetstone from his right jacket pocket as he began to sharpen the edge.

"Hmm... so, people think that she's fated for victory when really she's just taking fate into her own hands. Interesting. Emerald, do add her to the list."

Emerald the tapped away on the screen of her scroll until a slight beep sounded from it, the aforementioned amazon's face appearing on an ever-expanding roster of threats.

"There are a few more that we ought to add," Dabi said before he continued. "For one, there's Shoto Todoroki, son of the second most powerful huntsman in the world, Enji Todoroki."

"So? Why should we care about some rich kid?" Mercury jaded, not being the largest fan of any real authority with the exception of Cinder, who had already proven herself to be far more powerful than he was.

"If you could shut your damn mouth for five minutes, I'll explain." They sat there for several moments of uncomfortable silence before Dabi continued, the only sound present other than his voice being the sound of his whetstone sharpening the edge of Purgatory. "He has heterochromia, which is itself pretty damn rare. But the theory behind it goes that if you have heterochromia, you likely control more than one semblance. If you want an example, just look at Neo."

Mercury and Emerald nodded at this. Being introduced to the ice cream loving teen was... an odd experience, to say the least. But if one thing was definitely true about her, it was that she was incredibly powerful, moreso than the duo combined, especially due to her speed, damn near flawless control over battlefields, and her impressive stamina. How else would she be able to make all those damn illusions? Moving on...

"And that's not all," Dabi continued. "He wields two sabers, Jotunheim and Muspelheim. While he could easily use them both, he only seems to use Jotunheim. In the time since we arrived, I haven't seen him use Muspelheim or his fire powers even once. He's either holding back or has some degree of trauma regarding the other half of his powers."

"So, he's a pushover?"

"Quite the opposite. I'm sure you haven't bothered to pay attention to the leaderboard, but he is the undisputed second best at Beacon. And when you consider the competition, that's really something. If he actually bothered to use the other half of his powers, I'm sure he'd claim the top spot without breaking a sweat. The stats may say otherwise, but in terms of raw power he is likely far stronger than Pyrrha." He removed the whetstone from the blade's edge, lightly dragging his finger along it as he tested his handiwork. Razor sharp, as always. He then reverted Purgatory to its revolver form and put it in the holster underneath his jacket.

"You make many valid points. Add him to the list." Emerald did as she was asked.

"There is another student I'd like to address before you dismiss this meeting. You fought him earlier today, actually." He nodded towards Mercury. "Izuku Midoriya. His parents aren't really all that notable, though his father was an up and coming huntsman before he disappeared almost sixteen years ago. The official story on him is that he went on a mission and never came back. Most people think he's dead, but with a semblance like his, I highly doubt that's the case.

"But back to Izuku. Before his more recently acquired weapon, he used a pair of gauntlets and has shown prowess in multiple martial arts. These weapons were broken during that dock fight you had with those three trainee huntsmen teams, when he went toe to toe with Tomura. The weapon that he used when he fought against Mercury is a recent acquisition, and a damn powerful one at that. I'm not sure what that thing's capable of, but he definitely knows how to use it.

"Now, what I'm about to say is going to shock you." Dabi then looked up at Cinder. "Well, most of you. During Initiation, it's said that Izuku managed to defeat an Orochi Youth by himself."

"So what? I'm pretty sure Cinder can do that no sweat." Mercury said with his signature cocky smirk.

"If you would let me finish... I didn't mean to imply that he fought that thing over the course of several minutes. I mean that he managed to blow that things head off with a single punch."

The looks of shock on Mercury and Emerald's faces were almost cartoonish, the latter covering her open mouth while the other had his mouth so wide open that his jaw nearly hit the floor. Even Cinder lost a bit of her composure, her normally overconfident smirk falling from her lips and her right hand balling itself into a fist.

"However, this doesn't look like something he does very often. He seems to hold back on his power, and I have deduced two possible reasons for this. One, he's someone who enjoys the thrill of a fight, something that I highly doubt based on his behavior. Two, there's some sort of drawback to using the full force of his power, hence why he's almost never seen using it to the extent that he could otherwise.

"But, if I were to put him up against either Pyrrha or Shoto in a battle of skill, he'd most definitely lose. In terms of raw power, however... if Izuku used his full strength, he could likely win against either of them. He won't be the toughest of our hits, but he'll definitely be the strongest."

"So, he's not unbeatable, but he's so powerful that it may not matter. He'll be a tricky one for sure. Top of the list." Emerald snapped herself out of her dazed look and did as she was asked, the seemingly innocent looking boy's portrait appearing at the top of the list, just above Pyrrha and Shoto.

"But if we handle this right, I don't think they'll be that difficult to beat," Mercury said, the earlier shock leaving its remnants on his expression even with his now recovered smirk.

"Mercury, the key to winning this battle isn't about overpowering our enemies. The key is to strip them of whatever power they have. And we will. Eventually." Cinder responded ominously.

"Ugh, I hate waiting!" The silver-haired boy complained as he slumped back down onto the carpet.

"And I don't care." Dabi quipped in.

"You should, Dabi. And don't you worry, Mercury. We have an entertaining weekend ahead of us." She said as she stared at the flash infector that had been entrusted to them by Roman, and on it was a virus designed to take over the entirety of the CCT's controls bit by bit.

 **A/N: I hope you enjoyed the chapter! Also, for those of you who shipped Weiss and Shoto, I am so very sorry. This idea just sort of popped into my head and I went with it. Oh well. Might as well see where this rabbit hole takes us.**

 **Now I know that most of you will be outraged that I had Izuku, however nervously he may have done it, ask Yang out to the dance. Does this mean that they'll end up together afterward? No. Right now, they're still only friends who're going to a dance together, and they'll still be friends afterward. They're just really confused by their own feelings. Teenage angst at its finest.**

 **And now, the profile.**

 **8-Dabi**

 **Age: 17**

 **Race: Modified Human**

 **BDay: N/A**

 **Handedness: Right**

 **Hair: Black and Unkempt**

 **Eyes: Turquoise**

 **Blood Type: N/A**

 **Height: 5ft 9in / 175.26cm**

 **Gender: M**

 **Semblance: Surt, allows Dabi to generate and manipulate dark tinted flames. While the exact extent of this ability is unknown, he has shown that he can light an entire building on fire with little effort, suggesting that he may be as powerful as Cinder. Can become overheated incredibly fast if he uses this ability too much.**

 **Weapon: Purgatory, a Python Revolver/single edged straight sword with a main color of gray and red designs, the edge of the sword tinted the same color as the designs.**

 **Range: All**

 **Fighting Style: Standard Sword Fighting, Gun Kata, Karate**

 **Next Chapter: October 13th**

 **Seeya in the next one!**


	15. Dance Dance Conversation

**A/N: The second chapter of the Dance Trilogy has arrived! 100 favorites! Holy crap! Thank you all for the overwhelming support! I'll do my best to make you guys proud!**

 **Also, who else is excited for Volume 5 of RWBY? I sure as hell am! In case you guys are wondering (and I know that at least some of you are), I'm going to stick to the canon of RWBY as much as I can until Volume 4, which may or may not contain a completely different version of Yang's story where she leaves with Ruby (MAYBE!), and after I get Volume 5 out of the way I'll likely break away from the canon entirely, so don't be too surprised when I do. Enjoy the chapter!**

 ***WBM growls hostily***

 **Aw shit, not again! *cocks assault rifle* I thought you were dead! *fighting ensues***

 **Edit (11/26/18): I'm not even sure why I'm even putting in these notes anymore. You all know what I'm doing.**

 **Review Responses:**

 **JustSomeGuy: I did draw inspiration from Qrow's weapon (because it looks badass and is wielded by a badass) but I also drew inspiration from Izuku's own personality, hence why it utilizes wind Dust, representative of his ever-interchangeable attitude towards different situations, and why it's a massive greatsword in its base form, symbolic of his dream of becoming a great hero, or in this case, a great huntsman. It's not the most sophisticated weapon design, or the deadliest, but it's efficient and it gets the job done.**

 **Guest: I know! It's actually one of my favorite ships in HeroAca!**

 **Glenn: The first one of your ships is gonna happen eventually, but the buildup has to be natural. Just because they're going to the dance together doesn't mean that they're 'together together' right away. The second one, while it would've been very interesting, has been shot down now that Shoto has been confirmed to already have a girlfriend. The third one is something I might give some thought to, though at this point Tenya's ship is up in the air. And as for the last one, A) While it would also be very interesting, I'm not too sure Bakugo is interested in anyone romantically at all, B) they haven't had nearly enough development, C) if I put Velvet at the dance, it would break canon. However! That isn't to say that these are bad ideas. I've already stated that I've had Bakugo x Velvet on the brain for a while now, I just have to figure out a way to give them some more development. And to actually have them get introduced to each other under different circumstances.**

 **Disclaimer: I do not own RWBY or My Hero Academia. They belong to Monty Oum, Kohei Horikoshi, and their respective publishing companies. Please support the official releases.**

 **I do not own the cover image.**

Chapter 15: Dance Dance Conversation

Izuku, though he was strong without the use of his powers, still struggled a bit with the giant speaker he was currently carrying over his shoulder. Yang carried its twin towards the other end of the hall, a loud thud emanating from beneath it as she set it down. Izuku was more delicate with this procedure, placing his speaker down gently with hardly a tap coming from the bottom.

Yang dusted off her hands while she approached her sister, who was brooding at one of the tables that had been set up previously. Izuku, similarly, stretched his arms above his head to remove the tenseness he'd received from helping Yang move the various heavy things around the hall. He walked with Yang to Ruby's table, though he did blush slightly as he stood beside the blonde brawler.

"So, you picked out a dress yet?" Yang asked Ruby with a suggestive look on her face. Unfortunately for her, Ruby wasn't fazed by it, and hardly seemed to acknowledge it as she answered, "What's the point of it? Blake's not going to be there."

"Oh relax. She'll be coming. And Greenie's got some nearly foolproof plans to make it happen," Yang said proudly as she brought Izuku into an affectionate side headlock, causing his blush to deepen even further.

The green haired boy managed to stutter out, "I-I-I-I wouldn't s-say t-they're f-f-foolproof," as he slowly managed to remove himself from Yang's headlock, something the blonde brawler both admired and seemed annoyed by.

"Why don't I remember any of these plans?" Ruby asked.

"You _were_ half asleep at the time," her sister answered. Yang's attention was then drawn to Weiss, who was putting some kind of fancy tablecloth thing on the various tables. Whatever it was, Yang didn't seem to like it very much, causing her to yell, "Weiss! I thought we agreed: NO DOILIES!" Oh. So that's what they were called.

Weiss zipped over and got all up in Yang's face, and stated with her blatant and almost serious sounding tone, "If I can't have doilies, you can't have fog machines!"

Not half a second after this, the doors to the hall opened, with Sun, Neptune, Kirishima and Tokoyami coming through, the second of the former two asking, "The dance is gonna have fog machines?"

Weiss immediately dropped her cold tone, walking over to her not so secret crush and responding, "We were thinking about it," with the kindest smile she could muster, and it actually made her look kinda cute. Neptune responded to her statement with, "That sounds pretty cool."

"No duh. Fog machines are in this year, man!" Kirishima said as he raised his fist up in what could only be described as 'the coolest yet lamest manly pose ever.'

What? I'm not very good at naming things. Just roll with it.

"So, you all excited for dress up?"

"Pfft, hahaha! Yeah right!" Ruby said without a hint of hesitation in her voice.

"Laugh all you want to little sis, Greenie and I will be turning heads tomorrow," Yang said as she draped her arm over Izuku's shoulders, causing the boy to blush an even deeper shade of red.

"What are you wearing to the dance?" Weiss asked the group.

"Uh... this?" Sun gestured to his current outfit, Kirishima adding, "Same here. I hate what people consider to be fancy clothes outside of Sanus."

"Ignore them, for they know not what they say." Neptune stepped in front of the two as he said this, Tokoyami nodding along in agreement.

"Hey! Kirishima and I may have moved to Mistral, but don't forget that we grew up together in Vacuo. It's not exactly a suit and tie kind of place." Sun butted in front of Neptune as he said this.

The wolverine faunus then explained, "The closest thing we ever got to being dressed up all fancy like was during weddings, and even that's nowhere near how much you gotta be dressed for a decent party, especially in Mistral." Kirishima shuddered at the memories of being forced into a tuxedo. So damn uncomfortable.

"So... is Blake gonna come to the dance? Or is she still being all... ya know... Blakey?"

"What do you mean by 'Blakey?'" Izuku asked, not knowing what Sun was implying.

Tokoyami answered, "I believe he means 'moody, anti-social, and rather bitter towards everyone.'"

"If that is what he meant, then yes, she's still being 'Blakey.'" Weiss confirmed.

"I... wouldn't put it quite like that. But yeah, more or less," Sun reluctantly admitted, his posture hunching over slightly as he did so. He really did mean well.

"Come on guys. This is Blake we're talking about. We don't even know if Izuku's plans will work, and that's if we can even manage to surprise her." Ruby said in self-deprecating monotone.

Yang quickly tried to snap her out of that self-destructive mindset and placed a hand on her sister's shoulder, saying, "Ruby. Trust me when I say this. Blake will be at the dance tomorrow.

"Although we could use your help." The blonde brawler punctuated her sentence as she pointed towards Sun, a look of confusion settling onto his face.

 _(fifteen minutes later, the mess hall)_

 **Plan #1: Talk her into going**

Blake sat alone in the middle of the mess hall with at least three books and a small plate of fish related snacks laid out before her. Now at first glance, you'd simply think that she was reviewing notes from the last few classes, maybe compare them to some of the ones from the previous semester, etc. However, Izuku and co knew better than to assume that she was simply studying. From what he blazer-wearing boy could see, which was only enough to get a vague idea, the cat faunus was comparing patrol and shipment patterns for the White Fang and Torchwick's goons, to find any similarities and by contrast, any weaknesses in their patterns. The problem?

She'd been doing it for the past few days with barely any of sleep. Actually, scratch that last part, no sleep at all. Damn, how the hell does she do it?

"Okay, here's the plan-" Izuku began before he realized that Ruby, the essential player in plan number one, was already sitting down next to Blake with a trail of rose petals leading back to her earlier position, which was next to Izuku. Luckily the rose petal trail Ruby left behind whenever she used her semblance usually disintegrated itself after about a second or two, so there wasn't anything that actually lead back to them. Moving on...

Ruby was talking to Balke at such a rapid-fire pace that even Izuku, the most analytical of all the people there, couldn't keep up with her. This was further emphasized by Blake's prompt reaction to her leader's hyperactive approach, which was to quickly scoop up all her books and her plate of snacks and get the hell out of dodge.

Everyone who hadn't approached Blake, with the exception of Izuku, facepalmed at the hooded girl's antics while she awkwardly scratched the back of her head, trying to look as innocent as possible.

"Next plan," Izuku said as he crossed out the first plan of several in his notebook.

 **Plan #2: Have Sun ask her to the dance**

"No," Blake said before Sun even asked the question.

"But-"

"I said no."

"… Okay."

Again, everyone with the exception of Sun and Izuku facepalmed at the failed procedure. Oum dammit, this was almost as hard as sitting through Port's class. Almost.

"Next plan," Izuku said as he crossed out the second in his journal.

 **Plan #3: Bribe her with fish**

"Are you sure this is going to work, Midoriya? She hasn't taken the bait for any of the other plans so far, and I highly doubt this one is going to work." Weiss said as the Izuku, Sun, Ruby, and Yang placed various fish related foods and dishes into a very odd-looking chest. Add in the fact that it was a discount antique treasure chest that was on sale in the Vale Mall, so Izuku got it for cheap. The problem was the fact that the lock was so old it may as well not have been there to begin with.

"It's the only one I could think of before the plans started to get crazy!" Izuku said as he closed the chest and locked it as securely as he could.

"Besides, do you have a better idea?" Sun said as he ducked into the closet with the others, leaving Weiss the only person standing in her dorm. Reluctantly, she sighed and joined them in the surprisingly roomy closet.

"Wait, why didn't we just put our extra stuff in here? Then we wouldn't have had to make those death traps you call bunkbeds." Weiss pointed out before Ruby shushed her, leaving the room noiseless as Blake entered, a tired though still confused look crossing her face as the antique chest in the middle of the room caught her eye, her nose perking up at the heavy smell of fish. She skulked over to the note in front of it, which read, _'The key to this chest will be given to you at the Vytal Dance.'_

Her prompt response to this was to immediately tear up the note and begin picking at the lock, and when that didn't work she started banging on it until it broke off, revealing all the fish related foods and dishes inside, which she promptly scooped up and walked out of the room with.

A few seconds later, Izuku and the others practically fell out of the closet, the only two left standing being Sun and Weiss, the former due to his heritage as a monkey faunus whilst the later simply didn't care enough about the situation to practically press her face up against the door in the hopes that it would work. The three who were on the floor then stood up and dusted themselves off, Izuku pulling out his journal and crossing out the third plan in his journal.

"Okay, this is where the plans start to get crazy. I don't even think we'll be able to set up some of these." Izuku warned the group.

"Oh, come on Greenie. It can't be that bad-" Yang stopped as she got a glimpse of the various plans he had scribbled down in his notebook. "Trap her in a closet with a bunch of dresses, bribe her with smut novels, send her there via a hole through the space-time continuum?!" Yang snapped her gaze towards Izuku. "How tired were you when you wrote these plans down?! Most of these are things that'll be technologically impossible for the next century."

"Very tired. I'm sorry," Izuku apologized with a yawn. "I guess 'tired me' thought that at least some of those would be possible."

"In theory. Extremely unlikely theory," Weiss said as she took the journal from the green haired boy, looking over his notes and finding that it was full of math related to science's worse nightmare. Quantum Physics. Enough said.

Yang then took the notebook from Weiss, flipping through it before she found the last plan before Izuku had written down before he passed out the night before, a mischievous grin crossing her face as she said to the rest of the group.

"I think I've found our foolproof plan guys!" She exclaimed as she held Izuku's journal up high, everyone but Izuku looking at her with confusion as she began to explain her interpretation of the plan.

 **Plan #37: Use Laser Pointers to Isolate her**

Blake sat in the library at a holographic computer, looking through a few documents as well as some security footage she'd managed to collect over her various days of investigation. Her eyelids began to droop before she shook herself awake once more, now more alert what with all the plans to try and get her to the dance.

"Are you sure about this Yang? The others aren't even here anymore, so we're not going to have any back up if we mess up." Izuku said as he handed her one of the two laser pointers he'd just bought a few minutes earlier, the aforementioned blonde brawler clicking it on and off to make sure that it worked.

"That's what you're here for, Izuku. Remember, once I get her behind the shelf you need to box off her escape so that I have time to grab her. She may be tired, but she's still a freaking ninja." Yang said with a smirk on her face.

Izuku then sighed and smiled as well, replying with, "Alright. B-b-but I-I get the first d-dance." He stuttered out the last part, the unusual words leaving his mouth in a rather uncomfortable way. He really wasn't used to asking these kinds of things.

Yang seemed to catch onto what he was actually trying to say, and her smile grew ever wider. "I make no promises," was all she said as she took up her position behind her assigned bookshelf, Izuku going to a position behind Blake with his laser pointer at the ready.

Yang sent her signal with a glowing red dot on Blake's computer screen, which she quickly trailed down to the girl's hand to get her attention. The bow-wearing girl then looked around at the other students with a suspicious gaze for a few seconds before returning to her work.

Izuku then began his part of the plan, getting Blake's attention once more with his glowing red dot appearing in almost the exact same place as Yang's was just a few moments earlier. Though she tried with all her might to ignore it, her eyes simply would not leave that distracting red dot.

Izuku then moved it to the floor and made it spin in a circle, further drawing Blake's attention away from her screen. Annoyed out of her skull, she stood up and walked towards it with an angry stomp in her step, the green haired boy following her accordingly, making sure not to get to close or too far away from her. It was actually a lot harder than it looked.

She rounded the corner and walked into the section Yang was currently standing in, a singsong esque hello escaping her lips before she tried to turn tail and run, only to bump into Izuku, boxing her in with her boisterous teammate, who grabbed her by the collar and said, "We really need to talk," before dragging her off to an empty classroom with Izuku trailing behind them.

 _(empty classroom, five minutes later)_

"I honestly don't see the point of this. I'm not going to stop, no matter what you do," Blake stated as she paced the empty classroom, a soft click coming from beneath her shoes with every step she took.

"We're not trying to stop you. But you need to slow down," Yang explained as she sat on the teacher's desk in a criss-cross position, Izuku leaning against the chalkboard in the background.

At Yang's statement, Blake suddenly stopped, and replied with, "We don't have the luxury of slowing down."

"It's not a luxury, Blake. Honestly, it's necessary at this point. You can't keep this up forever. Everyone needs rest at some point, and you're no exception to the rule," Yang stated in a kind tone, one that almost reminded him of a mother calming down a child.

"We _need_ to stop Torchwick and Tomura. I don't see how going to some stupid dance is going to help with that."

"And we are going to stop them, Blake. But first, you need to sit down and listen to what I've got to tell you." She pat the empty part of the desk next to her, which the exhausted cat faunus reluctantly sat on as Yang began her story. It was enough to make Izuku tear up.

Yang recounted the story of the last time she saw Summer Rose. She was young, only about six years old at the time. Ruby was too little to remember, she'd only just turned four about a month earlier. Summer was essentially super mom in every sense of the word. Baker of cookies and slayer of monsters. But one day she left on a mission and never came back. Her father shut down after that, so Yang had to take care of herself and Ruby with what little she knew.

It was soon after this that she learned about her real mom, and found something that might've been a clue to her whereabouts. So, Yang set out to find her real mom with Ruby in an old red wagon. When she finally found what she was looking for, it wasn't what she thought it would be. It had turned into a Grimm nest after so many years of abandonment. The two were saved by their uncle, a man named Qrow Branwen. If he hadn't been there, they would've more than likely been slaughtered. Yang ended her story there, with a mechanical crow's eye now drawn on the board with chalk, likely Qrow's symbol.

"Yang, I'm sorry that happened to you, and I understand that you're trying to help. But this is different! I'm not trying to find answers to some mystery, and I can't just-"

"I told you, I'm not telling you to stop." Her grip on the chalk in her hand tightened until she was almost crushing it. Although his base instincts told Izuku to comfort the blonde brawler, something else told him to let it lie, at least for the moment. She continued. "I still haven't stopped looking for my mom. I still want to know why she left. But I will never let that search control me.

"We'll find what we're looking for eventually Blake. But if you let this search destroy you in the process, then you're no good to anyone, least of all yourself." The aforementioned cat faunus got off of the desk as the blonde brawler finished her speech. Blake closed her eyes in frustration, opening them again with a furious statement, "You don't understand, I'm the only one who can do this!"

"No, you're not!" Izuku yelled in an uncharacteristic tone. But he wasn't concerned about that. He needed to help Blake understand that she wasn't alone against Torchwick and Tomura. "You're not the only person here who wants to stop them. My entire team would help you take them down given the chance. But if you keep going at this rate, you're going to commit Karoshi."

"What does that mean?"

"Death by overworking." Izuku sighed. "Look, if Torchwick or Tomura walked through that door at this very moment, what would you do?"

"I'd stop them-" her rebuttal was cut off when Izuku suddenly appeared in front of her, small bits a green electricity rolling off of his skin, his right index finger pointed directly at her neck. "That was _**one percent**_ of Full Cowl. If you can't even stop me at that speed, you don't stand a chance against either of them. Especially not Tomura."

"But I can-" Izuku gently tapped Blake's shoulder with Full Cowl 1% still active, causing her to stumble into the desk behind her. "You'd lose," Izuku stated bluntly, concern filling his voice as he finished his tirade. "And unless you get some rest, nothing will change that."

Izuku slowly backed away with a guilty look on his face, his gaze now only monitoring his feet and the floor. Yang then walked over to her sister in arms and pulled the raven-haired faunus into a tight hug, saying, "Please, just get some rest. It'll do everyone some good. And I know Izuku was being hard on you, but he really does care. Although that wasn't quite the way I expected you to handle this." Yang said as she looked back at her date, a rather noticeable blush now adorning his face as he explained, "W-well, B-Bakugo did something similar w-when Tenya was d-d-down in the dumps, so I kinda defaulted to that andI'msorryifIhurtyourfeelingsinanyfashionIreallydidn'tmeantoIjustwantedtohelpandIdidn'treallyknownayotherwayso-"

Yang tapped him on the shoulder, breaking him out of his mumbling tirade once more as he took the subtle hint in the blonde brawler's kind gaze and shut up, his blush deepening even further. Yang then gestured towards the door as she guided Izuku out of the classroom, saying back to her teammate, "And if you do feel like coming out tomorrow night, I'll be sure to save you a dance or two. Izuku's got first dibs though."

Izuku blushed as he walked out of the classroom with the blonde brawler, with a finite feeling that Balke was going to be alright.

 **A/N: And that's a wrap! I hope you enjoyed the chapter. Now I do understand that this was rather short, but I promise that the last dance chapter will be twice as long at least.**

 **There isn't a profile today. I'll make it up to you guys next time. And yes, you'll see Toshinori and some of the other teachers again soon, don't think I've forgotten about them just yet.**

 **But I'm gonna be real with you guys for a few minutes. When I first started this, my parents had recently divorced, and I needed a way to vent. Now that this has become something more than that, I'm going to keep writing this story for all of you wonderful people who inspire me to write every day. Thank you all so much for your support!**

 **Next Chapter: Oct 20th**

 **Seeya in the next one!**


	16. Dance Dance Annihilation

**A/N: The title will make sense by the end, I promise. And before you assume otherwise, no, it doesn't forebode an early Fall of Beacon. That's staying where it is. For now.**

 **Here we are! The conclusion of the Dance Trilogy! Thank you all for your tremendous support! Over 20,000 total views! This story's blowing up! And now I'm running out of words to express my gratitude! I'll keep on doing the best I can to make all of you proud! Enjoy!**

 **Shout out to Wonderland Tea Party, Shadow Joestar, D3phl0xL0v3r, Rio Skyron, fernandamichelleraya and MarsDragon3180. They've been an amazing help with this story, and I wouldn't be here without their informative and inquisitive reviews. The ones that do write are goddamn amazing, and I'm not exaggerating when I say that they're some of the best authors on this site. At least, in my opinion. Thank you guys so much! I'll keep going for you till the end, which I perceive to be rather far off in the future.**

 **Oh! And Happy Birthday, Wonderland Tea Party! Here's to many more!**

 **Edit (12/03/18): You all know what I'm doing. The usual round of A/N deletions and minor rewordings. This was always one of my favorites.**

 **Review Responses:**

 **Guest 1: Yeah, that does seem like something Tenya would say in that situation. I wonder if that could become a meme...**

 **Guest 2: Thank you!**

 **Glenn (1st review): You're most welcome! And the fight between Izuku, Bakugo, and All Might was one of the coolest in the entire series (surpassed only by Izuku v Shoto because that was like demigods trying to kill each other. In terms of raw power, not motive). I liked that fight because not only did Izuku have to save someone who would gladly blow him up (again), but because it also shows Bakugo's progression towards becoming a hero. Well... as close as he can get to being one of those. He's more like an anti-hero. Seriously though, Bakugo, while he is a complete ass most of the time, has the greatest potential out of everyone else in Class A. Except for Izuku. No one can beat him out when it comes to potential.**

 **Glenn (2nd review): Well, Izuku had to go that far in order to get Blake to listen to him. And yes, there is a ship between Shoto and Momo in the canon of HeroAca, and I personally think it's freaking adorable. None of the pairings for the series have been confirmed as of yet though. :(**

 **Disclaimer: I do not own RWBY or My Hero Academia. They belong to Monty Oum, Kohei Horikoshi, and their respective publishing companies. Please support the official releases.**

 **I do not own the cover image**

Chapter 16: Dance Dance Annihilation

Izuku pulled the light green tie around his neck into a comfortable position, snugly fitting the knot underneath the edge of his collarbone. He straightened his black suit jacket as he buttoned it up, the forest green dress shirt he wore beneath it, though it did become a bit more obscured, was still a defining part of his outfit. He slipped his scroll into the pocket of his black dress pants, patting it to make sure it was easily accessible. The only thing on his entire outfit remotely similar to a weapon were his shotgun boots, because A) Shoto and Tenya both said that they went well with the outfit, with Bakugo jealously grumbling in the background; and B) he didn't feel all that comfortable going anywhere without a weapon, even if the place was being guarded by Atlas soldiers. Actually, scratch that, _because_ it was being guarded by Atlas soldiers. They didn't exactly have the best reputation for leaving... well, anything in their wake. His mom had always warned him to not trust anyone from Atlas, though Weiss gave him some semblance of hope that the stereotype didn't hold true for all of Solitas' natives.

He was pulled from his thoughts as Shoto emerged from their bathroom in his own formal attire. It was ever plainer than Izuku's, a simple black suit jacket and pants over a white dress shirt and black tie, with a pair of brown dress shoes to complete the outfit. And yet he somehow still managed to pull it off and look suave as hell without even meaning to. His jacket was open and the cuffs on the sleeves were unbuttoned, implying an 'I'll go to this thing but I won't quite enjoy it' attitude. Maybe it had something to do with the fact that he couldn't go to the dance with his girlfriend, since she was almost on the other side of the world. Actually, it probably was that. Moving on...

"Tenya and Bakugo are already headed to the ballroom. You ready to go get your date, partner?" Shoto asked with a slight smirk adorning his face. Izuku promptly nodded as they left their dorm room, making small talk as they went.

"Hey, can you think of any good team attacks? I've been trying to do that for the past few days, and I want to make sure they sound alright." Shoto asked his partner with a bit of an embarrassed look on his face.

"Maybe later. Right now, I have to pick up my... _date_..." Izuku started to blush as he thought of the blonde brawler, Shoto nodding in understanding as he brought out the notebook he normally kept on him, trying to think of possible team attacks that he continually wrote down and crossed out, seemingly unable to decide on any of them.

They then stopped outside of Team RWBY's dorm room, Shoto with his nose in his notebook and Izuku staring at the door with a nervous look adorning his face. The freckled boy then took a deep breath and exhaled, his previous expression replaced with a slight smile as he knocked on the white wood.

"Who is it?" Ruby asked for inside, which Izuku quickly answered with, "It's Izuku. I-I-I'm here to pick up Yang."

The door then opened to reveal Ruby dressed in her own formal attire for the dance, a short, red sleeveless dress with a thick black sash around the waist and black edging at the bottom. The bodice of the dress was split vertically to the sash and laced with black lacing. The yoke of the dress was translucent mesh with an opaque collar and hem, as well as opaque lines connecting the collar to her shoulders. She also wore black stockings and pumps.

"Oh wow! You look awesome-" Ruby was interrupted when she almost tripped over her own shoes. Izuku heard the silver-eyed girl say in passing that if she ever wore high heels, she'd likely never live down the awkward walking she'd have to do just to get around.

Luckily, Izuku reacted to this fast enough to catch her and stand her up straight once more. Ruby then promptly flushed, embarrassed to be seen in any sort of fancy shoes, asking her partner, "Weiss, how the heck do you fight in these things? They're so-" she stumbled a little as she stepped back into the room, allowing Izuku and Shoto entrance before she caught herself on the edge of her desk, finishing her previous statement, "-awkward."

"Years of uncomfortable practice," Weiss said as she shivered, memories of the various walking lessons she and her sister underwent briefly resurfacing. The snow-haired heiress herself wore a short, white sleeveless dress with cutouts on both sides of her waist. The yoke of the dress was translucent mesh, and she also wore white pumps.

"Where's Blake?" Shoto asked out of the blue, noticing that their raven-haired teammate was nowhere to be seen, to which Ruby responded with, "She's going down to the courtyard to meet Sun. Apparently, she accepted his offer to go to the dance!"

"I wonder if that's why he asked Kirishima to be his wingman..." Shoto wondered, eluding to some kind of sudden cutawa-

 _(fifteen minutes in the future, Beacon Courtyard)_

"Stupid... dumb... neck trap," Sun complained as he struggled to pull the white tie around his neck into a comfortable position without having it fall off, which, as you could likely imagine, proved itself to be an incredibly challenging task.

"I hear ya man," Kirishima responded, loosening his own black tie as far as it could go without looking too awkward. Ironically enough, Sun and Kirishima were using swapped color schemes, Sun with a black dress shirt with short sleeves and a white tie, while his crimson haired companion wore a white dress shirt with long sleeves and a black tie.

"I knew you'd look better in a tie." Blake's voice came from behind the two of them, causing Sun to turn and Kirishima to slowly slip away with a knowing smirk spreading across his face, sensing upon the cat faunus' arrival that he wasn't needed at that particular moment in time.

Blake herself was wearing a short purple asymmetrical halter neck dress that was split up the right side and had a black collar. Translucent black mesh covered her shoulders, décolletage, and back, and decorative black swirls covered the left side of the dress and continued up the left strap. The outfit was completed with black pumps.

She walked up to Sun and grabbed onto his outstretched arm, walking with him towards the ballroom as he asked with a little hesitation, "So... does this mean we're going... together?"

"Technically. Although my first dance is spoken for."

 _(present time, Team RWBY's dorm)_

"Did anyone else feel like some sort of attention shifted away from us for a couple seconds?" Izuku asked, prompting everyone else in the room to nod. What was that feeling?

It was shortly after this that the door to RWBY's bathroom opened, revealing the blonde brawler Izuku had come to escort. Yang wore a yellow, formal halter neck dress that covered her entire front, opting to instead leave the top half of her back open and her shoulders exposed. The left side of the dress was cut up to her mid-thigh, allowing easier mobility with the hem of her dress located at her ankles, the color fading to a paler shade of yellow around her mid-calf. The outfit was completed with a pair of purple flats, putting her and Izuku at almost the same height.

Izuku was silent for a few moments as he stared at his date in complete awe, his face becoming at least ten times redder than both of Ruby's namesakes combined. Really, he was just that red! Yang noticed this and, with her own slowly reddening face, asked Izuku with a slight sultry tone in her voice, "See something you like, Greenie?" shifting her weight onto her right foot and putting her hand on her hip, at the same time exposing some of her leg.

This only caused Izuku to deform into a red stuttering mess, unable to express just how gorgeous he thought she looked. "I-I-I-I... u-u-um... e-er..." was all that he actually managed to get out.

Yang chuckled at this and moved forward with a kind smile on her face, saying, "I'm just messing with you. You look really good, Greenie."

Izuku then mentally slapped himself out of his stuttering state, his hue fading into a slightly noticeable pink as he said, "Thank you. Y-y-you look beautiful," causing Yang herself to blush a deeper shade of pink right along with the cute freckled boy that was her date.

Everyone else in the room had varying reactions to this banter between the two. Here are the direct streamlines into their thoughts after Izuku's last statement:

Ruby: _KISS! KISS! KISS! KISS! KISS! KI-_ okay you get the point.

Weiss: _Well, it looks like all of Yang's concerns about looking good for Midoriya was all for naught. Now they're **both** blushing messes. Adorable fools._ The snow-haired heiress gave the two a kind smile as she thought this. She also fondly reminisced back to the morning of that same day, during which Yang had rather hurriedly tried to find a dress she thought would impress Izuku, finally finding the one she now wore just a few hours earlier. According to her partner, Yang had never been this serious about a formal event in her life. Ever. But she would pick her teammate's brain at a later date.

Shoto: _I guess I gotta give her the 'big bro' talk. *sigh* Whelp, here goes nothing._ Yeah. Enough said. Back to the normal world we go...

"Hey, Izuku, do you mind if talk with Yang for a quick second?" Shoto asked in his normal neutral tone. While Izuku didn't exactly know what he would discuss with the blonde brawler, he knew that his teammate wouldn't try and steal Yang away from him, especially since he already had a girlfriend. The green haired boy nodded to his partner, beckoning Ruby and Weiss to wait with him outside, and after a few short seconds, only Shoto and Yang were left in the room.

"Now look, Yang, I respect you, and I do believe that you're a good person. But I also need to do this so that I won't be a worrywart the entire night. I also need you to understand that Izuku is like a little brother to me. So, I'll give it to you straight...

"If you happen to break his heart tonight, I'll annihilate you," Shoto stated, his right eye briefly flaring up and causing the room's temperature to slightly lower itself.

Yang, however, was hardly even phased by his speech or the temperature change, instead nodding and responding with, "I understand. Wouldn't have it any other way. Hell, I'd probably give the same speech to Ruby's date if she'd actually decided to ask anyone out." They both chuckled at this, knowing that while Ruby herself was quite the matchmaker and a romantic at heart, she still had much to learn about actual romance.

The temperature in the room returned to normal as Shoto walked to the door, opening it for Yang as he stepped to the side revealing Izuku waiting with his left arm outstretched for the blonde brawler, which she gladly took as they walked towards the ballroom with Shoto trailing behind them.

 _(fifteen minutes later, Beacon Ballroom)_

"Wow. I know we worked really hard on setting this place up, but this is... by Oum this place looks awesome." Izuku said, astonished that the ballroom that he, Yang and Weiss set up looked this cool! Various tables with white tablecloths and vases filled with white roses strewn about the edges of the room, leaving the dance floor open for the various dancers that now littered every corner of it. Pink streamers ran along the edges of the indoor balconies and connected most of the chandeliers together, similarly colored balloons scattered throughout most of the ballroom.

The teachers were there too. Aizawa was talking with Ozpin, Goodwitch, and Ironwood while Port and Oobleck conversed on the opposite end of the room. Aizawa had actually cleaned up a little for the dance, his normally unkempt hair straightened to a comfortable proportion, although he still wore his normal attire, as did the other teachers present. He offered Goodwitch his hand, obvious that he wished to dance. Though she rolled her eyes, the spectacled teacher slightly smiled as she accepted the offer, becoming lost in the sea of other dancers that littered the already packed dance floor. Ironwood had a brief flash of jealousy cross his face, though it quickly faded away when he saw Goodwitch enjoying herself and her partner's company.

All Might was there as well, his massive frame obvious as he stood beside Ozpin and Ironwood in his golden colored tux, his ever-present smile plastered onto his face as he watched the students dance with pride in his eyes. He was really just there for appearances, since his time limit was slowly but surely getting lower by the day, but that didn't mean that he wasn't enjoying himself.

"Yeah. I'm happy to see this place in action." Yang said as they continued their way inside with their arms still interlocked, spotting a few of their friends in the crowd of dancers. Yang them tugged gently on Izuku's arm, saying, "C'mon, Greenie. You still owe me a dance," as she guided both of them to the dance floor, interlocking her fingers with his and resting her right hand on his shoulder. Izuku slowly caught on and placed his left hand on her waist as the two began dancing in rhythm with the waltz music that played over them, becoming lost within the crowd of dancers as they did so.

"I see you're wearing your combat boots." Yang commented on Izuku's choice of shoe wear, causing him to flush to a slight shade of pink as he explained, "I-I-It's a habit. Their safeties are on, I promise."

"Okay, okay. They look good with your outfit. Nice choice." Yang flushed to the same shade as Izuku when she said this. _Seriously! Why am I this nervous?!_

"T-thanks. Y-y-you picked out some nice flats."

"Aww, thanks Greenie." Yang grinned as she said this, her attention shifting to the entrance of the room a few seconds late, saying to Izuku, "Look! She came!"

Izuku the shifted his attention towards the entrance and saw Blake with a smile on her face, walking into the ballroom with Sun in tow. He was glad to see that she had gotten some rest and was finally willing to enjoy herself for once. In a way, he saw a bit of himself in Blake; always working towards some impossible goal that would be unachievable alone. It was why he tried, and now succeeded, to help her, even if they didn't know each other all that well.

He and Yang then left the dance floor to stand by the punch bowl with Ruby, although Yang didn't stay for too long, explaining, "I've gotta follow through on my promise to Blake, and then I gotta take over the entrance stand from Mina. She's been there for a while now."

"Welcome!" Mina said, overenthusiastically greeting the dancegoers as they entered, although her boredom with the task at that point was becoming more and more obvious with each person that came through the door.

"Y-y-yeah. H-have fun!" Izuku said as Yang left, one of her violet eyes winking back at him as she walked over to greet the aforementioned faunus couple.

Having nothing better to do at that moment in time, Izuku turned to the punch bowl and got himself a cup, which, surprisingly enough, were glass. Huh. They really were going all out for this thing. Regardless, Izuku filled his and took a brief sip, the flavor of hyper-sweetened watermelon greeting his taste buds with gusto, the aroma no less sweet than the drink itself.

It was at this moment that Jaune shuffled over to where he and Ruby were standing with a glass of punch in his hand, saying, "I see you're both hanging out by the punch bowl as well."

"Yup." Izuku and Ruby synched, both punctuating the word with a 'pop' coming from their lips. They were so used to synching statements by that point that it was almost second nature for them.

Jaune them held his glass towards the two of them. "A toast to the socially awkward."

"Here here," Izuku said before Ruby chuckled and they all clinked glasses, taking sips at the exact same time.

"Sorry things didn't work out with Weiss. I know you really like her." Ruby apologized for her teammate's behavior over the past few days. Well, Jaune _was_ a bit intrusive, but still!

"Meh, it's fine; Neptune's pretty cool. That, and I was being kinda rude. I get why she went with him."

 _ **"Master, who is this Neptune?"**_ Lancelot asked, giving Ruby a rather confused look on her face when she heard him answer the disembodied voice's question.

"He's the guy Weiss went with instead of me. Ya know, the one with the blue hair and goggles? Not a lot of people can pull that off," Jaune said as he once more took a sip from his glass before Ruby stated, "You do realize that Weiss came to the dance alone, right?"

Jaune almost did a spit take, and, after sobering himself, asked the silver eyed girl, "Wait, what!?"

"Yeah. She said that she was too busy to worry about boys." Ruby's gaze shifted to her partner, who was currently trying and failing to get a particular white rose to stand up straight.

"I was wondering why she didn't have anyone with her," Izuku commented, his earlier confusion now laid to rest. He then noticed Neptune joking around with Sun and Blake, about what he did not know. All he did know is that Jaune looked pissed as hell, asking rather sternly, "Hold my punch," before he gave his cup to Ruby and stormed towards the aforementioned bluenette.

Izuku's attention was then caught by All Might, who stealthily gestured for him to come out onto the balcony before he stepped onto it himself. Izuku then excused himself from the punch bowl area, shuffling through the crowd and onto the same empty balcony as All Might with his cup still in hand.

 **"Enjoying yourself, Midoriya?"** All Might asked his apprentice.

"Yeah. It's the first dance I've even bothered to go to, but... I wish I'd gone to one of these sooner." Izuku said before he took another sip from his cup.

 **"With a date, no doubt?"** Izuku then did a spit take, coughing for a quick second before asking, "H-h-how did you know?"

 **"You came in with Ms. Xiao Long, did you not? You're a rather hard couple to miss. And I can see why you'd like her. Strong, clever, _and_ beautiful, that one. Quite the handful as well."** All Might then briefly chuckled, though the silence that followed was more comfortable than some might expect. He then asked, **"Say, Midoriya, we haven't actually spoken to each other for a long while now, have we? Is your training coming along alright?"**

"Yeah. I have Shoto, Yang, and Ruby to thank for molding me into a better fighter. N-n-no offense to you, of course!"

 **"None taken. Besides, I already know from your grades in my class that you're an excellent study, and a hard worker. Well, I figured out the latter part even before you gained access to my semblance."** Both of them chuckled at this statement, remembering all the workouts All Might had put in place for Izuku, each and every one of them earning their rightful spot as its own circle of hell in Izuku's mind. Moving on...

 **"Listen, Midoriya. There's another reason I called you over here."** All Might then dug around the inside of his jacket, pulling out a small slip of paper clenched between his index finger and thumb. He offered it to Izuku, explaining, **"This is the address of the man who taught Regulation and Law before me. He's always looking for volunteers to join his group for a bit, and he's always posting jobs. He's...**

 **"… he's also the closest thing I had to a mentor when I first inherited One for All."**

 _Holy crap! This guy taught All Might how to fight?! He's gotta be an absolute monster!_ Izuku mentally panicked, his expression no doubt already giving his thoughts away as he tried to imagine what a man like that may look like, which he couldn't, terrifying him all the more.

 **"Don't worry so much, Midoriya! He's actually not so bad once you get to know him!"** All Might then let out his trademark laugh before stepping onto the edge of the balcony and saying, **"Well, I guess I'd better be heading out now. I've got about ten minutes left in me, so I'm gonna hightail it back to my apartment. It was nice talking with you, Midoriya!"** All Might than did what only a man of his strength could do, and leapt into the air, soaring across the open night sky towards the teachers building, leaving a jet trail of steamrolling behind him.

"Heya Greenie! You get tired of the noise?" Yang asked as she came to his left side, a look of curiosity in her gleaming amethyst orbs. Izuku, now turning pink once more, responded with, "Y-y-yeah. A-although I d-d-did talk t-to someone briefly."

"Who?"

"J-j-just an old teacher," Izuku answered, giving Yang what she wanted minus the context.

"Ah." She said, satisfied with the answer that her date had given her. Then, with her own slowly reddening face, she tugged on Izuku's arm and gestured towards the dance floor, saying, "C'mon! We're gonna miss all the fun!"

Izuku followed the blonde brawler with slowly darkening cheeks and a smile plastered to his face, only for the two to stop halfway in simultaneous shock when they saw what Jaune was wearing. Instead of the standard Beacon tux that most of the students were wearing, the knight was wearing a...

… white dress.

.

..

…

Okay, Izuku had heard Jaune say the phrase 'Arcs never go back on their word,' in passing a couple of times, but this was a ridiculous level of humility. And you know what? It only made Jaune even more awesome.

"Okay, I'm not sure how I'm supposed to react to that. Did you know anything about this?" Yang asked Izuku, who promptly shrugged and said, "I have no idea why he got into a dress in the first place. Do you think he lost a bet?"

As soon as he said this, all of Team JNPR began to dance in synch to the pop music the DJ put on, almost as if they'd rehearsed the entire thing, even though all of Team STIK and RWBY could attest that they'd done no such thing, making this task all the more amazing.

The two then heard a brief conversation between Jaune and Pyrrha. "I never knew you were a dancer!"

"Eh, I've got seven sisters. I've had plenty of practice with this kinda thing." Jaune said before he took the red-headed amazon's arm and spun her to the middle of the dance floor as they continued their tango with adoring gazes from all around them. Well, the ones who weren't looking at the two of them in complete shock were, anyways.

As the pop music reached its conclusion, JNPR lined up in front of their audience and bowed, receiving applause from nearly everyone in the room, Yang and Izuku included. The DJ the spoke, their voice unrecognizable thanks to their special audio system that they, Izuku and Yang had helped to set up the day before. _"Alright! That was Team JNPR, everybody! And what an impressive display that was! Now, I think it's about time we slowed down a little bit, but I know you all want a little more action, am I right?"_ The crowd cheered in response. _"Alright, alright! Here's a bit of both, starting out slow and then getting back into the action with this special song that's been stuck in all of your heads at some point or another, Free Bird!"_

 **(A/N: "Free Bird" by Lynyrd Skynyrd, the whole thing. I'm not even kidding)**

The opening strings and keys of the song played throughout the entire ballroom as the dance floor was slowly but surely filled once more with dancers, every pair interlocked in a slow dance of matching pace and timing. Each of the couples were comprised of varying genders and races, some looking at each other with friendly gazes while others looked at each other with something... more in their eyes.

Yang tugged on Izuku's arm to get his attention and gestured toward the dance floor, obviously wishing to join the growing population of slow-moving couples. Izuku happily obliged, and though the two didn't quite blend in with the other dancers, being bright yellow and dark green respectively, there were enough people to make them a lot harder to spot.

"So, how's the hunt for Stain going?" Yang asked, obviously wishing to start a conversation of some kind as they danced with interlocked hands and slow-moving steps. He and the rest of his team, with the exception of Bakugo, had told RWBY about Stain and Tenya's involvement with him. While Blake and Weiss were the only ones who knew what it was like to lose someone close to them, she and Ruby had done their best to try and understand his plight.

Izuku explained what he could to his dancing partner. "Well, we've got everything we need to start bringing him out of hiding. We have a list of his usual suppliers and a map of his hit spots ever since he came to Vale. We're planning on drawing him out when we go to the city. How's the Torchwick problem coming along?"

"Well, Blake managed to find out where the White Fang might be shacked up during all her research. She seemed to be onto something in the southern end of Vale. She didn't manage to get the specifics though, so we'll just have to take a mission over in the area. Sorry we couldn't get anything else."

"Yang, you don't have anything to apologize for. You guys have done amazing considering how secretive the White Fang already are." Izuku complemented, his face becoming a noticeable hue of pink once more.

"Thanks, Greenie. That actually means a lot coming from you." Yang said as the aforementioned boy spun her away from him and at the last moment pulling her back into his grasp, both of them smiling at one another as they continued to move throughout the sea of couples.

"Hey... Izuku?" Yang hesitantly asked her green-haired partner. Izuku immediately realized whatever she was going to ask meant a lot to her in some fashion. He'd only heard her use his actual name a few times, like when they first introduced themselves to each other and during the particularly nasty aftermath of his fight with Tomura.

"Y-y-yeah?" Izuku stuttered, afraid that she might ask a rather sensitive question, which she did. "Why'd you ask me to the dance in the first place? There must've been at least a few other girls pining for you. I mean, you are pretty cute." Yang said with the barest hints of a blush coming into her cheeks.

The freckled boy flushed in embarrassment at her statement, becoming silent for several seconds before mentally slapping himself aware and clarifying her view of his situation. Well... this is Izuku we're talking about. You know how it goes. "N-n-n-no! T-that's not how it was with me! I just... I've never actually gone to one of these things before, and I wasn't really all that sure of what to do for it. I kinda asked Shoto for help. A-a-and I already heard from a bunch of gossip that it was common practice to... a-a-ask someone to a dance like this, and... you were the only person I _wanted_ to ask," Izuku finished, his hue almost entirely red by the end of it, and leaving Yang with a stunned look on her face for several seconds afterward.

 _He... he only... oh wow, is it getting hotter in here or is it just me?_ Yang thought as her cheeks started glowing the same rose hue as Izuku's entire face.

Though the color didn't fade from her cheeks, Yang snapped herself out of her speechless stupor and smiled kindly at Izuku, saying, "Well... thank you for asking me. It's been a lot of fun so far. I probably would've come here all alone if you didn't."

That surprised Izuku. He thought she might've gone with _someone_ , not just him specifically. He asked for clarification, "W-w-what do you mean by that?"

Yang's small smile evolved into one of her normal grins, answering with, "Well, when you're one of the top ten students on the first-year leaderboard, people tend to be wary of you. Plus, the only guy who tried to ask me to this thing other than you was a total asshole. He still has about a day or two in the infirmary, so that's an upside."

Izuku understood her humor enough at that point that her quip actually got a chuckle out of him. Then, out of the corner of his eye, he saw Kirishima dancing with Mina, the latter wearing a short, turquoise sleeveless dress with a thick white sash around her waist. The bodice of the dress was lined with white material, wavy patterns of the same hue laced symmetrically on both sides of the dress. The yoke of the dress was a translucent mesh with white flats to complete the outfit. Mina was grinning without a care in the world while Kirishima was trying his best not to blush. Keyword 'try.'

"Aww, they look adorable!" Yang cooed at the young couples varying reactions to their current situation. Izuku smiled at the two, a gut feeling telling him that the two faunus' would be a bit more than friends by the time the festival was over. Either that or his judgment was on the fritz. Probably the latter.

His attention was then drawn to Tokoyami and Tsuyu, the former of whom was dressed in a black tux and violet dress shirt, a crimson tie and brown dress shoes to complete the outfit. Tsuyu was wearing a small, dark green sleeveless dress with a pink sash tied around her waist, the knot of which forming as a bow on her lower back. Her matching pink pumps completed her outfit. The two then disappeared into the sea of people once more without a trace.

"Hey, Greenie? Where's Ruby?" Yang asked, prompting the boy to search the room for any trace of the normally hooded girl, of which he found none.

"W-well, maybe she just stepped out for some air. It is kinda crowded in here."

"True that." Yang said before commenting, "Huh. Looks like Ironwood's leaving too. Guess he's had enough fun for one night." as the general in question left the building.

Izuku and Yang then spotted the other members of his team, the two who arrived early wearing similar tuxes to Shoto's, though Bakugo's was black and red while Tenya's was white and blue. The observing pair were then prompted to chuckle in synch as they watched the always bickering partners get into a somehow muted argument over something completely minor or insignificant, or at least they assumed, before Shoto stepped in and got the ash-blonde faunus to calm down. Bakugo then stomped towards the now unoccupied punch bowl to fume over in peace. Well, as peacefully as he could. No, really.

The blonde brawler and the green-haired inheritor then looked back at each other with a bit of... something else in their gazes. It was almost primal, yet it was also something each of them desired with such an intensity. Yang began leaning in slowly with half-lidded eyes, her head angling itself to make it easier for her to get closer. Izuku began to do the same, though his eyes were completely shut, before-

 **BWOM!** _CRASH!_

Yang's eyes snapped open when she heard those noises, peaking behind Izuku to see a dark vortex outlined with purple open in the middle of the room, one of the goons emerging from it having a piledriver punch ready to knock the green-haired boy out. As if by instinct, Yang moved Izuku to the side and socked the goon right across the cheek, sending the now unconscious man straight out the opposing window.

Now realizing that there were people to fight, Izuku snapped into his combat stance with Yang at his right, a wide berth becoming made for them and the portal that allowed the goons entrance to the ballroom, saying, "Are you sure you want to fight these guys? I-I-I mean, you did just get that dress," before punching out an approaching goon.

"Thanks for the concern, Greenie, but you're gonna need all the help you can get." Yang said as she punched out two more goons before she threw them by their heads into the growing crowd of crooks, making some of them fall over like bowling pins, and, ironically enough, with an accompanying sound effect. How was this possible? No one knew.

Not a second afterward, Bakugo pitched his still half full glass of punch at a random thug, knocking them out as it shattered into a myriad of shards before he yelled for all to hear, "FINALLY! THIS PARTY WAS STARTING TO GET BORING!" with a large, feral grin on his face as he launched himself into the middle of the crowd. No literally, he launched himself into the middle of the crowd and proceeded to smash any face, bone, or bodily appendage his fists, feet, and often explosions, could even graze.

"Wait for backup, you blundering idiot!" Tenya yelled as he and Shoto broke through the now formed circle of spectating students, the latter freezing the nearest enemies to the floor, further allowing Tenya to kick one of them so hard that it broke the thug away from the floor, sending them and the others behind him into a wall.

"I'd have recommended calling in our lockers, but I think Goodwitch would get even more pissed." As Shoto said this, the aforementioned spectacled teacher, with Aizawa at her side, began to pick off the stragglers who tried to separate from the main horde, keeping the majority of goons in an easy to knock out place while some of the other students began to join in on the action.

Kirishima punched and slashed with his hardened hands in tandem with Tokoyami's chops and jabs, assisted occasionally by the raven faunus' shadow, their teamwork and coordination obvious to anyone looking closely enough. Mina zipped through the crowd when she saw her openings, slicking the floor with her acidic semblance to destabilize some thugs before Tsuyu took advantage and leapt onto them, promptly making them lose their balance and fall to the floor, knocking most of them unconscious in the process.

Izuku, now having disabled the safety on his boots, and being the only person in the halls besides the Goodwitch, Aizawa and Ozpin with a weapon, activated Full Cowl 5% and began to pick off to outlying thugs with buckshot and fists, with the others helping to box them into an easy to strike area. Then Shoto got an idea, yelling to his teammates, "Bakugo! Give Izuku a lift!"

Bakugo blew up another goon before yelling back in response, "WHY THE HELL WOULD I-"

"Just do it!" Shoto said as he sent various ice shards into the crowd, most of the finding ample targets in many an abdominal area while a few of the others hit two or three goons in the face, consequently knocking them out. Bakugo, after kicking another crook into the circle of students, cupped his hand into a step to launch Izuku from.

The green haired boy in question then put his foot into Bakugo's step hand and was launched into the air not a second later with an explosion assisted throw. Izuku managed to perch himself on one of the indoor balconies as Shoto relayed to him, "Grab the streamers and make a rope!"

"Got it!" Izuku grabbed the first streamer line and hopped over to the next, continuing the process until he managed to hold every single bit of the wavy pink ribbons, a makeshift rope becoming made out of all of them. He then passed one of the ends to Yang and, with his end in hand, began to run around the crowd of crooks in tandem with the blonde brawler, catching almost all of them in a gradually tightening vice, and by the time they were done, almost all of the goons were tied together with the surprisingly durable makeshift rope made of party streamers. No, they did not stop to question the logic of this otherwise impossible thing.

"Someone get the door!" Shoto yelled as he covered the floor leading to the aforementioned wall of moving wood in slick ice. Sun and Neptune ran to both of the handles and pulled on them hard, opening them with a loud and baritone groan echoing throughout the hall.

"Alright! Everyone who's strong enough, get ready to push these people out the door!" Shoto relayed as Izuku, Bakugo, Yang, Kirishima, and Sun, surprisingly enough, lined up in front of the tangled mob of goons and gave it one mighty push, sending the now tumbling mass out of the ballroom and onto the paved walkway, the makeshift streamer rope finally giving way to all the strain and snapping into ribbons that the littered the ground.

"Huh. I was wondering when that thing was gonna break." Yang quipped when suddenly, before the Atlas guards could surround the crooks, the same dark vortex suddenly appeared and swallowed the group whole. A pair of gleaming golden eyes then appeared near the top of the dark mass and stared directly at the students who'd managed to beat every single criminal that they'd sent, a frustrated huff escaping his nonexistent lips before he vanished, leaving the guards and students alike with baffled looks on their faces.

Izuku took a deep breath and sighed, scratching the back of his head in frustration, while Bakugo voiced the question in the back of everyone's minds. "What the hell was that about?"

"No idea. Those were definitely Tomura's goons, and after the display we just put on, I doubt they'll do that again." Shoto stated as he walked back into the ballroom to inform everyone that the threat had passed, a brief cheer escaping from the confines of the ballroom as he finished.

"D-do you wanna call it a night?" Izuku asked Yang.

"Yeah. I think I've had enough excitement for now." Yang then stretched her arms above her head before realizing something. "Oh! Greenie!"

"Hmm?" was all Izuku managed to get out before Yang dashed up to his side and pecked him right on his cheek as she continued, "Thanks for tonight. It really was a lot of fun."

It was only after she said this that she realized that Izuku's face had gone redder than it had ever been before, briefly tipping backwards before Yang caught him, thinking in a panic, _Oh... shit! Did I break him?!_

"Well, looks like Izuku won't be dancing for the rest of the night." Shoto said as he reemerged from the ballroom, approaching the two as he continued, "C'mon. I'll help you get him back to our dorm."

Yang happily accepted the half and half boy's offer, only imagining how awkward it would be if she had to take her date back there by herself. The two then walked off to the dorms, the fading sound of the music still echoing behind them.

 **(A/N: End Song)**

 _(a few minutes later, Torchwick and Tomura's hideout)_

"What the hell, Tomura?! I knew you were planning to do something at the dance, but this?! This was just insane! Do you want to get caught?!" Roman yelled at his white-haired partner in crime.

"Calm down, Roman. Everything's gone according to plan." Tomura replied to his colleague's distress with a rather... unusually calm tone. Huh. You'd think he'd be at least a little upset.

"I'm sorry, what?" Roman asked in confusion.

"I might be impatient, but even I wouldn't have done that without an ulterior motive. Kurogiri!" Tomura called to his second in command. The vapor-esque figure approached the two criminal masterminds in his bartender's outfit, which he usually wore when he wasn't on a mission, politely asking, "What is it, sir?"

"Did we lose anyone of note?"

"No, sir. Just some thugs who knew nothing of the grander scheme."

"Good. Be sure that the ones who made it back receive the necessary medical attention." Kurogiri stiffly bowed before he turned to carry out his master's orders.

"Okay, can I have some context now?" Roman asked with the same confused look.

"It's quite simple really. While Kurogiri might be mostly made vapor, he still has some form of physical matter left. It's how he can pick up all those glasses when he makes drinks."

"He does make some mean whiskey mixes," Roman remarked on Kurogiri's drink making skills, briefly wondering if Kurogiri would be behind his counter that night.

"Yes, he does. But getting back on topic, it was just a matter of hiding some scrolls within his intangible matter in order to get these." Tomura then pulled out his own scroll and showed Torchwick various shots of the students who'd fought against their horde, including several long shots of Shoto, Bakugo, Kirishima, Tokoyami, Yang, and many, many shots of Izuku.

"Why the hell do you need all that? I mean, Cinder has access to the CCT now, right? Couldn't she just hack the school's mainframe and get video footage of the sparring records?"

"Well, for one, I don't want her to pull a favor out from under my ass if I did ask for those things. But really, those are just videos of practice fights with too many rules to keep students from going all out. _This_ was to insight them to actually defend themselves with everything they had, absolutely no holds barred. Although we didn't manage to insight everyone we wanted to into the fight, we did manage to gain intel on a few more possible threats. Now, when I give this to Cinder, she'll owe _us_."

"Ahhhh. Wow. I knew you were crafty Tomura, but you've really surpassed yourself this time. That was some good planning on your part. For the first time in a while, I'm actually jealous."

"Flattery will get you nowhere. But thank you anyways. Hey, aren't you transferring to the Mountain Glenn outpost tomorrow?"

"Yeah. Cinder wants me to oversee the bombing operation. But really, why is she even bothering with this? I mean, I get that it's to spread doubt throughout the populous and get more Atlas robots down here, but other than that, what point does it really serve? They've got freaking All Might here in Vale full time now, and let me tell you, getting around him is not easy. I've almost been caught by that guy more than once. I doubt she's going to inspire any sort of panic with him on the battlefield."

"All in due time, Roman. I may have wanted to kill him right away before, but we both saw what that got us. I am impatient, that I will fully admit, but I am open to change. Good luck with the bombing run tomorrow!" Tomura then walked towards his private quarters, reviewing the footage as he went.

Torchwick sighed, muttering "I need an Oum damned drink," as he walked towards the makeshift bar Kurogiri had put together in his spare time. After about a minute of waiting, the aforementioned dark mass appeared behind the counter with a towel draped over his left arm, asking Torchwick, "Anything special tonight, sir?"

"Just a shot of bourbon. And don't call me 'sir.' Makes me sound old."

"Coming right up." Kurogiri then pulled out some of the mid-shelf bourbon and a shot glass from behind and under the bar, placing the shot in front if the ginger-haired criminal. "Enjoy."

"You know I always do." Roman then drank the entire thing in one gulp, swallowing audibly. "Ah! That's the good stuff. Where do you get it anyway?"

"I have an old friend in Mistral. She has a rather large excess of liquor most of the time, so I purchase some of it when I have the Lien. It helps her with business, and it keeps me stocked."

"I see. Well, thank her for me next time you see her." The two then fell into a comfortable silence for several seconds before Torchwick broke it. "Hey, Kurogiri? Do you mind if I ask you a personal question?"

"That would depend on the question."

"Why are you so loyal to Tomura? If you don't mind me asking." Roman quickly added on, offering the bartender a way out.

"Well, if you really want to know." Kurogiri wiped his hands on the towel draped over his arm before he continued. "I was still a regular bartender at the time I met Tomura and the man that found him. He was small and frail, wouldn't look anyone in the eyes. The man who brought him told me to take care of him, train him to be as strong as a huntsman, if not a whole team of them. I went to a combat school before I decided that fighting wasn't for me and took up bartending. I couldn't make Tomura as strong as a team, but I did the best I could. We got involved with general crime about a year after that, our organization began expanding, and I've been at his side ever since."

"Sounds like quite the story you two got there," Roman commented.

"A tale for another time. Is there anything else I can do for you?"

"Actually, yeah. Could you fill this with some of that pumpkin whiskey you make? That stuff's really good." Roman put his hip flask on the counter, a symbol of a smiling pumpkin face emblazoned on the bright orange sleeve in a contrasting black. Kurogiri took it as he began to mix the drink, asking, "Why would you need a flask of this? I thought you smoked cigars."

"I've been trying to quit for about a week now. Alcohol helps stave off the urge."

"So, you're giving up one addiction for another?" Kurogiri placed the flask back on the counter.

"I never said that. Plus, having a bit of alcohol on hand never hurt anyone. It can be used as a makeshift disinfectant and it helps steady my hands when I'm aiming." Roman plucked up the hip flask and placed it inside his jacket, saying, "Thanks for the drink, Kurogiri. Seeya later!" before he tossed two one Lien cards on the table, payment for the shot as well as the tip for his polite services, before walking off towards his own private quarters.

However, before he could enter the aforementioned room, he was tackled by a small figure with pink and brown hair, though streaks of white were littered throughout the pink. She wore a white jacket with a pink interior, brown pants, black gloves, and black and white boots with very high heels. Under her jacket was a brown corset, curved in the middle and at the bottom, exposing her hips. She also wore a multitude of necklaces, which hung haphazardly around her neck. This little ball of ice cream fueled joy was his niece, Neapolitan, or as she preferred to be called, Neo.

"Heya, kiddo. How'd the op go with that friend of yours?"

Neo pulled out her scroll and rapidly typed out her response. _It went well. She almost got the urge to slice up a few of the pedestrians, but she managed to reign herself in. I'd say she's doing better, but-_ a loud male scream then interrupted Roman's thoughts for a brief moment before he read the rest of it. _-that would imply she's tried to make any progress at all. I wish I could help her out, but what with me being mute and the fact that she's already half psychotic, there's only so much I can do._

Context time! About a month earlier, just a few days after the Tuckson incident, Neo and Toga had actually hit it off quite well, despite the fact that the latter was already half a psycho. Neo did what she could to help with her outbursts, and Toga, while it wasn't often, did try to get out of her habits. But they were basically engraved into her mentality; a natural instinct to kill.

"Well, like your mom always said. 'When once you fail, try again.' Are you ready for the bombing run tomorrow?"

Neo quickly nodded her head, prompting Torchwick to ruffle her hair with fondness. "Good. Now go get some sleep. We've got a long day ahead of us."

Neo skipped off to her own room as Torchwick entered his, resting his bowler hat and Melodic Cudgel on his dresser before he shed his clothes and drifted off to slumber, the mission waiting for him when he woke up the next morning.

 **A/N: Huh. I actually didn't expect to write that much about the villains. I mean, Torchwick, Tomura, Kurogiri, and even a bit of Neo in there too! I guess I like humanizing characters a lot more than I thought I did. Well... most characters.**

 **Say it with me now: FUCK YOU CINDER!**

 **In case you're wondering about the ballroom fight scene, yes, that was about as close to the actual song length as I could write. I really wish I could've written that scene to match the song exactly, but that was as close as I could get to it without overextending myself. Too much.**

 **Now before you guys jump the gun and assume that Izuku and Yang are officially a couple now, and I know that some of you are going to do that, STOP. I mean it. I've said it before and I'll say it again, they do have feelings for each other, and those feelings will continue to grow over time. However, that doesn't mean they're going to know how to express those feelings. Especially Izuku. So, for now, they're just friends. Oddly comfortable friends.**

 **Like I said, I'm not very good at naming things. Also, sorry for the tease, but you had to admit it was good, right?**

 **Now, to make up for the last chapter's mishap, I'm giving you guys two profiles of, in my opinion, the best teachers in HeroAca! Here they are:**

 **9-Shouta Aizawa**

 **Age: 32**

 **Handedness: Right**

 **BDay: N/A**

 **Race: Human**

 **Hair: Black, Shoulder Length & Unkempt**

 **Eyes: Black (Red when using semblance)**

 **Blood Type: B**

 **Height: 5'10"/177.8cm**

 **Gender: M**

 **Semblance: Erase, allows Aizawa to neutralize almost anyone's semblance through mere eye contact, although the power itself requires that his eyes must be open often, leading to his eyedrop habit.**

 **Weapon: Mourning Ribbon, a scarf that allows Aizawa to bind and manipulate his enemies. Uses this in tandem with mixed martial arts.**

 **Range: Close-Mid**

 **Fighting Style: Mixed Martial Arts & Cord Fighting**

 **10-Toshinori Yoshikage**

 **Age: N/A**

 **Handedness: Right**

 **BDay: 6/10**

 **Race: Human**

 **Hair: Blonde, slicked back with Duel Bang spikes (powered) or Blonde, spiky with deflated Bang spikes (true form)**

 **Eyes: Blue**

 **Blood Type: A**

 **Height: 7' 2½"/ 220cm (powered) or 5' 9½"/ 176.53cm**

 **Gender: M**

 **Semblance: One for All, a power passed down from person to person, gradually growing stronger as it does so. Toshinori is the eighth person to inherit One for All, but after his injury at the hands of All for One, he's on a time limit the slowly grows smaller every day.**

 **Weapon: Bare Hands (current) or Pair of Unnamed Gauntlets (former)**

 **Fighting Style: Mixed Martial Arts, mainly Slugger Style Boxing**

 **Range: All**

 **Next Chapter: Nov. 3rd**

 **Seeya in the next one!**


	17. Missions and Mentors

**A/N: Another day, another early chapter. I know I've said this a million times before, but thank you all so much for all of your support! It really does mean the world to me, no matter how many times I say it.**

 **Anyways, this is the chapter where Torino appears. This is gonna be one heck of a thrill ride. Strap on in and enjoy the chapter! *roller-coaster clinks to a stop* Oh shi- *roller-coaster shoots down track***

 **Review Responses:**

 **Glenn: While I will try to make this story as close to the canon as I can, and I _will_ continue to use thigs from the canon Volumes when I can; I'm going to start diverging from it in Volume 4, maybe even during the end game of Volume 3 (don't get too excited. You're probably gonna hate me after I get it done), and I'll break away from the canon completely after I get Volume 5 out of the way. Who knows, maybe I'll do a reworking of this story someday that fits with the canon of the RWBYverse, but I don't think I ever will. So, as sad as I am to say this, after I finish up Volume 5, take none of this story as gospel for RWBY or its future volumes. I am rather impatient when it comes to these things.**

 **Red John: Yes, yes it was. As for the huntsman shadowing thing, well... they're not going to be shadowing all together with Torino, although I kinda wish I thought of that before I wrote over 5,000 words for this thing (god damn my compulsive habits). I'll try to have Torino interact with some of the team members in later chapters, maybe even give them advice, but they won't be shadowing him, unfortunately. There _will_ be a fight between All Might and a Nomu during the Breach, because those powerhouses are gonna duke it out eventually anyways. Thank you for the support, and enjoy the chapter.**

 **Disclaimer: I do not own RWBY or My Hero Academia. They belong to Monty Oum, Kohei Horikoshi, and their respective publishing companies. Please support the official releases.**

 **I do not own the cover image.**

Chapter 17: Missions and Mentors

Weiss paced around the dorm room with her hands behind her back, her anxiousness at her partner's sudden summoning obvious. Blake, while she was calmer than her other teammates, tapped her foot with obvious anxiousness against the carpeted floor in anticipation as she read her guilty pleasure smut. And Yang, while she was worried about her sister, wasn't focused on Ruby as she laid atop her half of one of the bunkbeds they'd constructed with her hands behind her head and her back against the slowly warming sheets. No, the blonde brawler was currently focused on the events of the previous night, as well as their implications. Specifically, what almost happened just before the mob of Tomura's goons dropped in. The fact that she and Izuku had almost-

She then felt herself get mentally slapped by her logical side as it yelled at her, _C'mon, that was just in the heat of the moment! You don't know if he actually meant to follow through! Besides, you're Yang Xiao Long! You do not get hung up on cute guys, no matter how nice they might be! He may not even feel the same way!_

 _But-_

 _No buts! You don't know , so until you can confirm otherwise, what happened last night means nothing!_

 _But I really do like-_

 _Nothing!_

 _ **Oh, come on. I wouldn't say it meant nothing.**_

 _...what?_

 _ **I mean, Greenie did seem pretty willing. Plus, he is kinda hot. Maybe you should've aimed for his lips instead of his cheek-**_

 _Would you both shut up and leave me alone for like, five minutes? Please?_ Yang blushed a bit as her emotional side nearly finished its statement.

 _That last request is literally impossible._

 _ **But yeah, we'll shut up.**_

Yang, now at least somewhat alone with her thoughts, mulled over why she was feeling this anxious in the first place. Izuku was her opposite in a lot of ways, all of them good. While she took a bit of amusement in finding ways to tease everybody, he made it his mission to try and be polite to just about everyone he met. Even Bakugo. And Weiss. Izuku looked her in the eyes when she spoke to him instead of staring at her chest like so many other hotheaded guys she'd met, something she really appreciated about him. Of course, he always looked everyone in the eyes when he spoke to them, although she felt like he paid special attention to her when she had something to say, and not in a perverted way either; he actually cared about what she had to say. He was strong enough to take down an Orochi Youth in a single punch, albeit at the cost of breaking his own arm, but gentle enough to help his friends recover after a hard battle. She recalled all the training matches they'd fought against each other. He never refused her advice, and actually took everything she said about hand to hand to heart, making adjustments to every move she said needed work and often thanked her way too often for it. But that wasn't all that made him special in her eyes. He tried the best he could at every class, every subject, and he wouldn't hesitate to offer help when he had the chance. He had that goofy smile that appeared on his face whenever she made a pun, and that kind gaze that always made her heart skip a beat. He was... well, he was everything she wanted in someone else.

 _ **… holy crap, you really like this guy,**_ her emotional and logical sides synched.

 _Wasn't that obvious?_

 _ **Then I don't see what the problem is. Why don't you just ask him out?**_

 _Because she doesn't feel like she deserves him._

 _ **Oh, that's bullshit and you know it!**_

 _Look, even if she were to ask him out right now, we have almost no experience with dating. We went on one, and I repeat, ONE DATE! in our entire life, and the guy we went with was a complete asshole! Not to mention all the perverted dickheads who can't keep their hands to themselves. Hell, for all our bravado and all the other guys we've flirted with, we've never even kissed anyone! I vote that we wait a little while and see how she feels about Greenie then._

 _ **That... is actually a good idea. I second this action!**_

 _Could you two please stop talking about me like I'm not even here?_

 _ **Sorry.**_

It was at this moment that Ruby had come back to the dorm room, the blonde brawler getting pulled from her inner turmoil as she and her teammates rushed to the door to make sure their leader was alright, leaving her conflicting thoughts of the green haired boy for another time.

 _(around the exact same time, Team STIK's dorm room)_

Unsurprisingly enough, Izuku had a similar dilemma at almost the exact same moment that Yang did. However, there was one small difference.

 _ **Y ou have no chance.**_

 _But-_

 _ **N one.**_

He had absolutely no confidence in himself when it came to romance. At all. Not even the dance helped with that.

"Hey, Izuku!" Shoto broke his partner away from his thoughts. "We've gotta head to the auditorium soon. You ready?"

"Yeah!" Izuku hopped off of his bed with his huntsman outfit on and Gale strapped to his back, quickly heading out the door after the rest of his team towards the main hall. The place was packed to the brim with students from all four academies, Haven to the far right, Atlas to the center right, Shade to the center left, and Beacon to the far left. Izuku and his team found themselves standing beside their sibling teams JNPR and RWBY, though the aforementioned freckled boy was specifically standing next to Yang, and he didn't even mean to stand there. The blonde brawler noticed this as well and when their eyes met they immediately looked away from each other with massive blushes on their faces.

Goodwitch's voice then caught their attention. _"Professor Ozpin would like to share a few words with all of you before the mission selection begins."_ The spectacled teacher then stepped aside for her senior to take the stage with his speech. _"Today we stand together, united. Mistral, Atlas, Vacuo, Vale. The four kingdoms of Remnant. On this day, nearly eighty years ago, the largest war in recorded history came to an end. It was a war of ignorance, of greed, and of oppression. A war that was about much more than where borders fell and who traded with whom. But about the very idea of individualism itself. We fought for countless reasons, one of which being the destruction of all forms of art and self-expression. And as you are well aware that was something that many could not stand for. As a result, those who opposed this tyranny began naming their children after one of the core aspects of art itself. Color. It was their way to demonstrate that not only would they refuse to tolerate this oppression, but neither would the generations to come. And it was a trend that has held to this very day. We encourage individuality, expressionism, and unity. Through diversity. As I have said, today we stand together, united. But this bond cannot exist without effort. Which is why today while the rest of the world celebrates peace, huntsmen and huntresses will work to uphold it. As first year students, you will be tasked with shadowing a professional hunter, either with your team or without, on a mission. Some of you may be taken out of the kingdom for several days. Others might work within the walls for the rest of the week. But no matter which path you choose, remember to be safe, remember your training, and remember to do your very best."_

Ozpin then left the stage with rapid applause at his back that continued for several seconds before the students dispersed towards the mission boards, the excitement and anxiousness of every trainee and team heavy in the clear morning air.

Team STIK then shifted towards the local mission's board and looked for a few jobs within the walls. Well, the others did, Izuku already knew which huntsman he would be shadowing. Gran Torino, the man who taught the Hunter Regulation and Law class before All Might and, ironically enough, his idol's teacher. Izuku quickly skimmed the list and found the name he was looking for and applied for the job, which went through successfully.

"I'm registered. I'm going to be in the western part of Vale for the next few days." Izuku explained to his teammates as the too looked through the myriad of requests. Man, there were a lot of things to do.

Shoto then selected a mission. "I'm on north then. Tenya? Bakugo?"

"I've got south. I've always wanted to go to that sweet shop Ruby recommended." Tenya said with an analytical look on his spectacled face.

Bakugo grumbled and scrolled through the missions list until he found one on the east side, grumbling, "At least I can visit my mom while I'm there."

"Alright. We've all got a quadrant of Vale to cover while we search for Stain. Remember, if you see him, do not engage. Call the others and wait for backup. I cannot stress this enough: do not fight him alone under any circumstances. Okay?" They all nodded, even an incredibly reluctant Bakugo. "Alright. Now that that's settled, let's see our friends off before we go."

"Oh yeah! Yang said that she and her team were going to try and take a mission south of Vale." Izuku blushed pink as he mentioned the blonde brawler, causing Shoto and Tenya to smirk while Bakugo facepalmed at the freckled boy's apparent embarrassment. Seriously, what was the big deal about talking to her in the first place? She was just a girl. Who could break bones with a look.

STIK began walking towards the docks when they noticed that CFVY was walking across the docks back to their dorm room form, the most noticeable to them being the long-eared bunny faunus, who Izuku heard in passing was called Velvet. She was wearing a short, long-sleeved brown jacket with a golden zipper, brown shorts with golden details and black leggings. She also wore a black, semi-translucent undershirt beneath her jacket, along with golden spaulders and vambraces on both arms, as well as a similar belt, and her heel and toe were likewise protected.

"Oh! Hello!" She greeted Team STIK with a happy tone in her voice, her gaze shifting to Bakugo as she continued, "Hey, aren't you that guy who saved me in the cafeteria that one time?"

"Maybe. Why do you ask?"

"Well, I just wanted to thank you for getting those guys off my back. You did a good thing."

"I wasn't trying to help you."

"Oh... well, that's a little disappointing. But I do still have to thank you for what you did." Velvet then came around and pecked Bakugo on the cheek with a pink hue in hers, saying, "Thanks again!" before rushing off to rejoin her teammates, leaving a rather confused Bakugo staring after her.

The aforementioned direwolf faunus then felt a large amount of blood begin rushing upwards. Confused, he turned to his teammates, asking, "What the hell was that?"

Shoto opted to explain. "That was a girl thanking you for something you didn't even mean to do. And then she kissed you on the cheek. And now you're blushing. Huh. I never thought it was possible."

"WAIT, WHAT THE HELL?!" Bakugo yelled in dismay, his hands feeling his face for signs of red, which he found plenty of. He continued, "I DO NOT BLUSH! EVER!" as he ran towards the nearest water source to rid himself of this newfound annoyance. Tenya and Shoto simply shook their heads with a slight smirk on their faces while Izuku, though he did want to show concern for his friend, knew that trying to help Bakugo would likely result in him getting blown up.

After retrieving Bakugo from a nearby fountain without a speck of red on his face, and immediate denial that he had ever blushed to begin with, they once again began walking towards the docks, where Teams JNPR, SN, and RWBY were currently conversing.

"Hey, where are the others? They said they'd be here to see us off." Ruby asked before Izuku and his team appeared seemingly out of nowhere, Shoto clarifying her confusion with, "Sorry we're late. Bakugo dunked himself into a school fountain to get rid of a blush."

"I TOLD YOU, I DON'T BLUSH! EVER!" Bakugo denied yet again, only causing his partner to chuckle in amusement before muttering, "Yeah, right," under his breath.

"So, where are you guys going for your mission?" Jaune asked the newly arrived team, to which Izuku answered, "We're just gonna work inside the walls for a few days. I've been meaning to visit the city again anyways."

"It would be rather nice to see Vale without something blowing up every five minutes." Shoto commented on the fact that everything seemed to go into full on chaos every time RWBY walked into town.

"What's that supposed to insinuate?" Ruby asked with a tiny growl in her voice and possibly the most adorable pout on her face, which Shoto knowingly smirked at.

"FOUR MINUTES, LADIES!" Oobleck called from the bullhead.

"You're going with Oobleck?" Tenya asked in confusion.

"Yeah. We'll just be going outside the kingdom for a couple of days, towards the southeast." Yang answered before her eyes once more met with Izuku's before the latter blushed and turned away slightly. Yang, wishing to say goodbye to the boy in private, though she had her own developing shade of pink, asked the others, "Hey, could I have a minute alone with Greenie? It won't take too long."

RWB nodded as they walked over to the airship, JNPR and STK doing the same before heading back towards the courtyard. Sun, his ever-flamboyant self, said "Good luck! to Izuku while Neptune flashed him a brief thumbs up before they too walked in the same direction as the two latter teams, leaving Yang and Izuku all by their lonesome.

"So... this is really happening, huh?" Yang asked with an awkward tone in her voice.

"Y-yeah. I-I-I wish we could go with you guys. I mean, t-this is an underground crime network we're talking about here, maybe hundreds of White Fang grunts to cover the entire southeastern area since it'sprobablythelargesttheyhaveundertheircontrolsoI'mnptsurehowyou'regingotbeableto-"

He was then silenced out of his mumbling tirade when the blonde brawler pulled him into a tight hug, a few seconds passing before she said, "Thanks for the concern, Greenie, and I really do appreciate it." She pulled away. "But we'll be fine. Most of our team is on the top of the leaderboard, not to mention we've had to deal with these guys before. So-"

"FIVE MINUTES, MS. XIAO LONG. ONE MORE AND WE'LL LEAVE WITHOUT YOU!" Oobleck called from the bullhead.

Yang sighed in frustration before looking at Izuku once more and saying, "Seeya when we get back, Greenie." She then turned and began walking to the airship, stopping halfway as she called back to Izuku. "Hey, Greenie!"

"Y-yeah?"

"If you happen to find Stain during your mission, kick his ass for me!" Yang said before she ran towards the bullhead and just barely managed to jump on in time.

Izuku stood there stupefied for a few moments before he shook himself out of it and smiled at the departing bullhead. He knew they'd be back. Nothing, not he Grimm, not the White Fang, not even Torchwick and Tomura themselves could prevent that. When Team RWBY made a promise, they kept it.

"Huh. I actually thought you guys were going to kiss." Shoto said as he walked up to Izuku's left side, causing the latter to blush pink yet again, answering Shoto's thought with, "I-I-I-It's not that simple!"

Shoto chuckled. "Yeah, I know, I'm just teasing you. Take it at your own pace. Just don't take too long."

"Wait, how did you know, though?"

"A brother always knows, Izuku. That and I've had a bit of experience with Momo."

"W-w-w-wait, d-does that m-m-mean that y-you guys..."

Shoto's eyes widened in realization as he shook his head 'no' at a rapid pace. "No! Oum no! We've hardly even cuddled! Get your mind out of the gutter, man. "

"Y-yeah. S-s-sorry." Izuku said before they rejoined the rest of their team, walking towards the bullheads that would bring them into Vale.

 _(10:34 am, western side of Vale, Gran Torino's apartment building)_

Izuku felt rather intimidated as he stood outside the four-story tall building that was the headquarters of Grand Torino. The apartment building looked fairly old, run down and abandoned. Most of the windows had been broken and a few pieces of the building were actually falling off. Above the front door, there was a sign saying "Welcome" that was bent, made to look as though it was slowly peeling off, which was rather odd considering that it was made of metal. The building was also surrounded by a tall fence and gates.

Izuku made an audible gulp before he walked up the steps to the front door and made three loud knocks, echoing throughout the building and rebounding through the windows, causing the already afraid boy to become even more nervous. Torino definitely heard him.

Then, with a loud and sickening groan, the large wooden door swung open to reveal...

… an old man. A very tiny old man.

Now revealed, Torino had short, spiky gray hair with a contrasting beard, a round, circular wooden walking stick half his height in his right hand. He wore full body, monochrome suit with a matching yellow cape and belt, the latter with the letter "G" emblazed onto the buckle the same color as suit. He also wore very thick yellow boots and gloves.

"Ah, you're the one I sent for, yes?" Torino asked in a crackling voice, his age obvious even if you couldn't see the many wrinkles lining his face. "Your name was... Toshinori, yes?"

 _On second thought, how the heck was All Might trained by this guy?_ Izuku thought as he corrected Torino. "It's Izuku, actually. Izuku Midoriya."

"What?" Torino held his ear out so that he could hear better.

"My name is Izuku, sir." Izuku said a bit louder.

"I'm sorry, I couldn't quite hear you."

"Izuku Midoriya, sir!"

.

..

…

"I see. Well, come on in, Toshinori." Torino stepped inside the building with Izuku at his heels, a sigh of frustration escaping the latter's lips as the door slammed shut behind them with an echoing thud. The interior belied the exterior, being well cared for and clean all the way through. Various paper and boards lined the walls, a bookshelf standing off in the far corner, filled to the brim with literature. There was a bright blue sofa to the left of the room, with a matching cushion chair about three feet across from it facing inwards, a wooden stand connecting the corners. On the left wall was everything you'd expect to find in a kitchen, with various cupboards lining the underside of the counter and hanging over it. There were a few shelves here and there, filled with various canned foods and the like, and a fridge at the very end of the setup. Next to that same fridge was a rotating microwave.

Izuku set Gale down on the backside of the sofa before he told Torino that he needed to make a quick phone call. Continuing his ploy, he pulled out his Scroll and began dialing All Might to tell him about his former mentor's condition. But before he could, the old man started poking at Gale, an action that made Izuku rather nervous. But what happened next genuinely surprised him.

"Why don't you just through a full power Smash at me?"

Izuku's flustering immediately ceased, replaced by a calculating expression before Torino further elaborated. "I want to see just how far you've actually come in terms of handling One for All. Those sparring records, while they are all well and good, are nothing compared to first hand judgement." He then began to examine Gale a bit more closely, noting the Vacuean Runes that ran along it, as well as the shift mechanism built into the pommel.

"This is quite a fine weapon. Now where's that attack I asked for?"

 _Is this even the same guy as before?_ "Um... sir-"

"Hey, what are you doing here?" Torino asked as he turned to Izuku, going into loony old man mode once more.

 _What the heck is with this guy?!_

Izuku straightened himself as he explained, "Look, I'm here because I need to get a better grasp on One for All. That and... I'm not so sure that All Might has very much time left to spare. So I'm sorry, but I can't afford to be messing around like this." Izuku bowed slightly before he made way for the door.

"*Sigh*. Just as I thought."

Izuku stopped and looked back at Torino, surprised to hear his serious tone emerge yet again. Torino then jumped into the air using his semblance, his cane still in hand as he bounced around the room before mounting himself above the door frame, small impact markings outlining his hands and feet.

"It's time to show me what you can do, newbie. I've seen your sparring matches, boy. And let me tell you right now, you've made good progress, but it's not nearly enough to put up a lasting fight. Almost all of them were short term." Torino chuckled. "He may be Remnants Symbol of Hope, but Toshinori's still got a long way to go when it comes to being a proper teacher. I can only imagine how clumsy his is in a classroom."

 _Wait... when we started properly training for Initiation, All Might called me 'newbie' too. Plus, during class he either pretends to be completely oblivious or ends up coming down on us super hard. This guy really is his teacher!_

"Well, since you're beginning to get a proper grasp on your own style of fighting, I'll just have to help you develop it properly. Grab you weapon. We've got a bout to fight." Torino said, grinning as he hopped down onto the floor with a surprisingly tight grip on his walking stick. Was there a weapon hidden inside?

Izuku didn't pay it any mind as he retrieved Gale from its former resting place, smiling as he readied into his combat stance before activating _Full Cowl 5%_ , their first match of many just beginning.

 _(two hours later, same place)_

"I think that's enough for one day. You've done quite well, Midoriya." Torino wiped the blood from a slight cut on his left cheek, made when he just barely managed to dodge one of Izuku's final attacks. "That's the first time I've had to seriously dodge an attack in years."

Izuku nursed the bruises he'd gained from the spar before they slowly began to fade away due to his excess of Aura. He stood up, his joints aching with effort, and managed to walk himself over to the couch before he collapsed onto it.

"Well, c'mon kid. Let's heat up these nice pastries I bought earlier." Torino said as he pulled out some frozen Taiyaki sweets and piled them onto a plate.

A few minutes later, the pastries were warmed and ready to devour, Torino now happily munching down on the first one that he managed to snatch away from the plate, a muffled but delighted hum escaping his lips. Izuku slowly bit into his own, the taste of sweet custard filling greeting his taste buds and partially relieving his exhaustion.

"So, do you know where the rest of your team shadowed. I didn't want to break up any teams, but this was the best way I could teach you as discreetly as possible." Torino explained.

"Well, I know that Tenya's shadowing with Manuel, and Bakugo's likely shadowing a brawler specialist, maybe Desutegoro or Gunhead. I think Shoto's with Edgeshot, but I could be wrong." Izuku said as he flipped open his journals out of habit, looking up info on the huntsmen he'd just named.

"I see." Torino nodded. "Actually, I've been meaning to ask this for a little while, but how did you actually manage to get One for All to work for you in that way?" Torino asked.

"I kinda just imagined an egg in a microwave not exploding." Izuku said without a hint of hesitation in his voice.

.

..

…

Torino the proceeded to laugh his ass off for three minutes straight. I'm not even kidding.

"-hahahaha! Oh man, that's so nerdy!" Torino said as he banged his fist on the table, emphasizing his amusement threefold.

"I-I-I know. All Might said the same thing." Izuku awkwardly scratched the back of his head as he said this.

"Hehe, Toshinori might be a scrub when it comes to teaching a class, but he actually taught you to control One for All fairly well. That's actually rather surprising, in a pleasant way." Torino took another bite out of his Taiyaki.

"What was he like? As a student, I mean?"

"Toshinori? Well, he was pretty much able to use One for All right off the bat, so he didn't have to go through ten months of pure hell like you did. I guess it _was_ a plus that he already had the body thing working' for 'im. So, I taught him in a very different manner."

"You mean you didn't give him any tips about One for All?"

"He didn't need 'em. It was all combat training for Toshinori." Torino grinned. "And boy, let me tell you, he may have been powerful, but he didn't know the first thing about proper fighting."

 _No wonder he respects this guy so much!_

"But you seem to have the opposite problem he did." Torino inhaled the last of his Taiyaki before he picked up another one.

"Huh?" Izuku tilted his head slightly to emphasize his confusion.

Torino swallowed and explained. "You're afraid of your own power. You still see One for All as something you need to call upon instead of a part of yourself. I... understand that you're a former Fractured. And I don't mean any offense by this; but you've gotta think about it as your power, not something you're borrowing. Whether you like it or not, this power in its entirety will be yours eventually. You need to be ready for that responsibility."

"But... I don't know how to do that."

Torino took a bite out of his fresh Taiyaki, saying, "Well, think about it. You've gotten stronger over the year, haven't you?"

"Well, yeah, but-"

"Then who's to say that you can't use access more power with the technique you're already using? What was it called again? Full... Prowl?"

"Full Cowl." Izuku corrected, unsure of whether Torino was still messing with him or not. "And... I haven't actually tried that yet."

"If you want my advice kid, I recommend plenty of meditation. It'll help you assess yourself a lot more accurately. It helped me when I was trying to figure my semblance out." He chuckled again. "Toshinori really was a natural."

"Wait, why did you help him in the first place? And how do you know about One for All?"

Torino was silent for several seconds, the weight of Izuku's question obvious within his mind. After those seconds, he answered, "I was a close friend to Toshinori's predecessor, and since they couldn't teach him how to use that power, the task fell to me."

"Huh. Could you tell me about the guy sometime?"

"Sure." Torino said before he began munching away at his Taiyaki once more. _You really didn't tell him about the seventh, huh Toshinori? Well, he's gotta learn about the threat eventually. It'll be better coming from you than me._

"Anyways, eat up! You can't be yapping away on an empty stomach!" Torino said as Izuku realized just how hungry he was, his stomach growling for emphasis.

 _(1:56pm, basement of Gran Torino's apartment building)_

Izuku sat in a common meditative position: sitting down with his legs crossed and the backs of his hands resting on his knees. Torino opened up his rather spacious basement a few minutes ago for Izuku to collect his thoughts in private.

For approximately five minutes straight he'd sat like this to no effect. Of course, Izuku had expected it to be a slow process, and he was a rather patient person anyways. He slowly breathed in and out continuously, the only sound within the room his own, almost mute breathing.

Izuku suddenly felt something... shift. As though he were still within the confines of the quiet, dimly lit basement and yet somehow elsewhere. He opened his eyes to see a wide beach of sand bleached white by the seemingly never-ending ocean expanse that seemed to stretch on forever into the distance laid in front of it. He glanced to his left and right, the sandbanks having no definite end, the same as the ocean.

Izuku then turned his gaze behind him, surprised to see a green forest just beyond the reaches of the sand, as though it were somehow blocked by some kind of barrier. He stood and walked towards it, curious as to why the terrain was shaped so... artificially.

The soles of his feet touched the soft, velvety pasture beneath them, an altogether different feeling from the warm and grainy sand he once stood upon. Izuku tried to push further, but he felt himself hit a wall. Literally, there was a see-through wall right in front of him. Then, a disembodied voice began a speech that would haunt Izuku's thoughts for days to come.

 _"An infinite ocean, filled with power. Eight came before you, the ninth you are this hour. If you so wish to tame this great might, survive the Breach, survive the night._

 _"An eternal forest, now yours to call. But first you must get past the wall. Magic of the father, now in your hand; find the entrance key, claim the Warden's Brand."_

Izuku's eyes shot open, the dimly lit basement now the only thing visible to him. He stood and dusted the collecting particles off of his clothes, climbing the stairs to the next level of the building with several questions lurking in every corner of his mind. _What was that voice? And what was it talking about? Breach? Magic of the father? Warden's Brand? Urgh, this makes no sense!_

"Something on your mind, boy?" Torino inquired as he sat on the sofa, his arm draped over the back while his other hand held a half-eaten burrito still partially wrapped in tinfoil.

"Yeah. I had this weird... vision or something. It was really cryptic, and I can't really make much sense of it."

"Well, you were down there for five hours. Must've been some vision." Torino calmly stated before Izuku began freaking out. "What?! Five hours?!" The green-eyed boy looked at the clock on the wall, finding that five hours had indeed passed, now reading 6:58 pm.

"Why didn't you wake me up?!"

"I've meditated before and I went into a rather docile state for a few hours. Some of my friends tried to snap me out of it, but nothing worked. Trust me when I say that nothing I could think of would've come close to waking you up, if it even affected you in the first place. Now, come eat a burrito. Not much good on patrol if you're hungry." Torino said as he gestured to another plate on the table, which had a foil wrapped burrito on it. Izuku tried to object until his stomach interrupted him, audibly rumbling and telling him just how long he'd gone without food. He dragged himself over to the table and unwrapped the burrito, explaining his vision to Torino as they ate.

 **A/N: And that's a wrap! Once again, thank you all for your incredible support! I wouldn't be writing this right now without it.**

 **Now, I know that this chapter likely raised a lot of questions that you'd like to ask. If you do have any, please let me know! I love responding to reviews (when the site will actually let me respond to them) and they actually help with inspiration and motivation!**

 **And now, the profile:**

 **11- Gran Torino**

 **Age: 76**

 **Handedness: Right**

 **BDay: 1/28**

 **Race: Human**

 **Hair: Gray, short & spiky with a short beard**

 **Eyes: Yellow**

 **Blood Type: B**

 **Height: 4'2"/128cm**

 **Gender: M**

 **Semblance: Jet, allows Torino to propel himself through the air at rapid speeds, and to change his momentum midflight. However, in his old age he often forgets his own strength, leading to unecessary collateral damage much more often then he would prefer.**

 **Weapon: Shinboku, a collapsible staff with a base form of a cane half the size of Torino's height, and extends from both ends to stand a whole foot taller than him. While many would see this weapon as rather small and basic, he will still kick your ass with it.**

 **Next Chapter: Nov. 17th**

 **Seeya in the next one!**


	18. The Hunters and The Prey

**A/N: Well, so far 5 episodes of RWBY Volume 5 have aired (for FIRST members. Officially it's just 4) and I'm still hyped for what this season has to offer! The action is amazing, the models are somehow even more expressive, there's more context for Aura and Semblances, and even more badass looking characters have been introduced! (Vernal is BestGirl! For right now, it could change.)**

 **I! LOVE! THIS! SHOW!**

 **Ahem! Sorry, I went all 'fanboy' there for a second. Enjoy the chapter! And yes, I am a guy.**

 **Review Responses:**

 **Glenn: That's not to say I dislike canon RWBY. I love it. A lot (with the exceptions of Yang getting her arm cut off, Penny dying, Roman dying and Pyrrha dying. Those all hit me right in the goddamn feels with a literal metric ton of force. I was quite literally crying by the end of Volume 3). Otherwise, this FF wouldn't even exist. But at some point, I will try to break away from it, but ONLY after Volume 5 wraps up. Until then, I will only make slight deviations and the occasional canon change when I recognize possible story elements.**

 **JustSomeGuy: The Big Three will make their appearances soon. Very, very soon. Fair warning, I only managed to get my hands on Volumes 1-9 of the manga, so I apologize in advance if my depictions of them are nothing _like_ the manga. Also, I kinda see Nejire as an older version of Ochako. I mean, they look undoubtedly similar with the exception of their hair colors; hell, even their powers are similar in nature (I'm actually a big fan of IzuOcha despite this story's main pairing, by the way). And yes, Izuku will tap into 20%… well, he'll get it very soon, I promise.**

 **keys of fate: Holy crap these are a lot of reviews to respond to. *Cracks neck* Time to get to work. Mei is one of my favorite HeroAca characters; yes, I know that Yang was technically taller than Izuku, but c'mon man, he's seventeen in this universe; much more interactions between them in the later chapters; I kinda wanted to see how I could express Bakugo's feral side in a more comprehensible way, also thank you for seeing Izuku's bio; Tomura has much to learn about everything; they are the best!**

 **Well, that took a bit.**

 **Disclaimer: I do not own RWBY or My Hero Academia. They belong to Monty Oum, Kohei Horikoshi, and their respective publishing companies. Please support the official releases.**

 **I do not own the cover image**

Chapter 18: The Hunters and The Prey

"I'm not sure, kid. I mean, mine was vague but nowhere near as vague as that." Torino explained as he locked the door to his apartment building, the sun now setting just beyond the horizon of the beach that stood several blocks away from them.

"Well, it's gotta mean something. I just need to figure out what that 'something' is." Izuku thought aloud as he scribbled various notes down in a spare notebook he had on hand, trying to decipher the meaning behind the voices rather... poorly rhymed poem.

"Put that infernal thing away!" Torino jumped up and smacked the back of Izuku's head with his cane. "You're not gonna need it. You'll just be usin' your own eyes n' ears for this."

With his train of thought now broken, Izuku reluctantly put the rather small notebook into the inside pocket of his jacket, briefly adjusting Gale's holster before he caught up with Torino. "Why are we going into the city this late? Wouldn't it be a bit more sensible if we did patrol earlier?"

"The baddies only really come out at night. Plus, you can't keep fighting against me the entire time you're under my tutelage. It'll get you into some rather bad habits that other opponents can exploit very easily. Well... the ones who're smart enough to figure it out." Torino referred to most of the common thugs that didn't actually know how to fight. Since Izuku had already dealt with those kinds of people at Juniors club, he understood his mentor's mentality, nodding as he responded, "I think I understand what you mean. If I get too used to fighting a speed type opponent, like you, I have a much harder time formulating a strategy to defend against a strength type opponent."

"You catch on quick, kid. C'mon. We're taking the scenic route."

 _(3:34 am, the streets of Vale)_

And the scenic route they did indeed take. The large, urban expanse known as the city of Vale was laid bare before them on their path to the actual city, swathed in the auburn light of the sunset as the aforementioned sphere of flame began to fade from sight like a slowly cooling campfire. The lights of various buildings and nighttime businesses were beginning to come alive, their signs switching from closed to open mere seconds after this. The daytime had passed. Night had come.

Patrol wasn't really all that exciting. It was simply walking throughout the city, breaking up a few fights whenever they broke out, and even stopping a purse snatching. No one to actually fight, but it wasn't exactly a boring night. Plus, the city was rather beautiful at night, if you knew where to look.

It was around midnight that Shoto started a group chat with Izuku and the rest of the team, reporting their findings and patrols, but with currently no results. The chat persisted for a long while, far into all of their patrols, when for some odd reason, Tenya suddenly, and rather abruptly, went silent. Izuku knew from his teammates usual messaging patterns that he never took any longer than three minutes to reply to a message. It had been nearly ten, which was rather worrying. He knew that Tenya could handle himself, and rather well, but that didn't stop his anxiousness.

Torino sighed at Izuku while the bot stared at his Scroll. "You kids are always on your damn Scrolls nowadays. C'mon, get yer face away from that screen."

Izuku immediately complied. "Sorry. Just a bit worried about a teammate."

"Well, if your team is anything like what you've told me, I'm sure he's fine-" And then, like a sudden strike of lightning, there emerged a humanoid Grimm from a back alleyway, swiping at the nearest pedestrian it could reach. It was looked rather gangly when compared to the thing that Tomura had called 'Nomu' during the fight at the docks. It was actually rather pale in tone as well, with a rather normal looking jaw, though it still had the mask thing going for it, with an extra set of eyes and the same style shorts as the other. But the exposed brain was a dead giveaway that it had some relation to the thing Tomura had commanded at the docks.

Torino was quick to jump into action, yelling to Izuku, "Get the civilians to safety and find more hunters to evacuate the area! I'll hold this thing off!" before he dove headfirst at the monster, driving it away from the gathered crowd and further towards the eastern edge of the city.

Izuku followed through on Torino's command, ushering civilians away from the area with the help of a few passing huntsmen. Then, his Scroll vibrated, a sudden message delivered to his inbox. He checked the message, seeing that it was from Tenya without a single letter contained within it, instead containing a picture of a map of Vale with a preset destination on it. This message had also been sent to Shoto and Bakugo, and, seeing as this had been a very hastily put together message, it could only mean one thing.

Tenya had found Stain.

Izuku immediately activated _Full Cowl_ and began weaving throughout the panicking crowds before he found a back alleyway, taking a bit of a shortcut as he started running faster and faster, pushing himself further and further, his wish to help his friend the driving force behind his rapidly moving lower appendages.

After almost one and a half minutes of running, he made one final, sharp turn, and saw Stain, the man who'd been so hesitant beforehand, standing above Tenya with his blade poised to stab him straight through the torso, a wild and dangerous look in his eyes, only barely hinted with any sympathy at all.

Stain no longer thought of Tenya as Huntsman material. Therefore, by his conduct, he had to be eliminated. For him, there were no exceptions to the rule. Not even a child.

 **(A/N: "Trinity/Sanmittai" OST from My Hero Academia)**

Without another second to lose, Izuku jumped off of the various walls of the alley, gaining a decent amount of momentum before launching himself at Stain with a right hook straight to the face, sending the Huntsman Hunter back several feet before skidding to a halt. Izuku then landed in front of his wounded friend and drew Gale from the holster strapped to his back, the dust infused greatsword/war-scythe almost glowing beneath the silvery pale full moon as the wielder held it in a death grip.

"Don't worry, Tenya. The others will be here soon." Izuku said as he looked back at his fallen friend, who had been cut many more times than normally manageable. How was Stain able to get past Tenya's Aura? Did it have something to do with his blades?

"I'm sorry, Izuku. I tried to fight back, but he ingested my blood. I can't move." Tenya explained, Pride's main grip just a hair's breadth out of his reach. Izuku nodded in acknowledgment, twisting the pommel of Gale and triggering it to shift into scythe mode. He could not afford to pull punches against a man like Stain.

"And how are you gonna fight me with a weapon of that size, green-hair-" Stain was interrupted yet again when Izuku jabbed at him with the butt end of his scythe, followed by an immediate overhead swing, embedding the large blade into the pavement as Stain just barely managed to avoid it. Stain grit his teeth as he sped along the length of the scythes handle with Bloody Reign, aiming to slice at Izuku's arm before the boy leapt into the air, using his hands to keep himself grounded to his embedded scythe and swung his legs around at Stain, kicking him with both boots and sending him even further towards the edge of the alley.

"Hehehehehehe..." Stain chuckled to himself before spouting off in a mad tirade, "So, you really are one of them! One of the only ones who are truly worthy of being called a huntsman! This is... fantastic! You're perfect-" But Izuku was having none of it, pulling Gale out of the concrete only to throw it at Stain mid-speech.

It was also at this moment that Shoto arrived, Jotunheim drawn and ice covering wherever he walked. The look in his eyes was one of pure, unfiltered wrath. He was angry. Shoto had never been angry before. Not once.

"You know Tenya, you've really gotta stop sending such vague messages. I just barely got here." Shoto stabbed Jotunheim into the ground, sending a trail of ice towards Stain that then crept up his legs and froze him to the ground, stopping him from moving entirely, even as he continually swung his odachi to and fro. With his mobility now limited, Izuku was free to pull Gale free of the concrete once more, the blade still a shining, silvery green.

Bakugo was the next to drop in, literally, as he jumped off the roof of one of the buildings making up the alley, making a meteor drop with several flips to gain momentum before he crashed into Stain's head, a sharp crack resounding throughout the area, his Aura finally caving in.

Thanks to this, Tenya was able to move once more, picking up Pride before dragging himself to his feet with the help of his partner. He smiled, opening his mouth to thank them before something within Stain's vicinity caught his eye. "Look out!" He yelled at them, causing them to duck just in time before Stain lashed out with pocket knives, nearly hitting Shoto in the arm and Izuku on the back.

The green-haired boy was the first to react, kicking out with a Gatling gun-esque kick combo before performing a standing be twist flip and hitting Stain towards Shoto, who swept Jotunhei upwards, making a jagged wall of ice in the Huntsman Hunters trajectory path, splinters and shards of ice scattering everywhere when he crashed into it. Bakugo held his hands open, his palms facing Stain's back as he yelled, "HOW ABOUT THIS!" At the top of his lungs before an eardrum-shattering explosion erupted from his now ablaze hands, sending the killer straight for Tenya. The aforementioned spectacled boy kicked Stain straight in the gut, causing the killer to stumble backward before Tenya hit him across the head with the blunt end of Pride, followed by a low, sweeping kick that took Stain off of his feet, his back hitting the ground with an echoing thud.

The killer tried to reach for one of his knives before Tenya quickly stepped on his hand, increasing the pressure and he held Pride's bladed end just a few inches above his throat. In his eyes was a burning rage that hadn't yet been fully quenched. And yet, the expected death blow did not come. Why?

"I want to kill you. I truly, greatly wish I had the right to do so. But I don't. I'm not the only person you've wronged. You will pay for your crimes. You will be brought before the high council, and you will be judged properly. Even scum like you deserves that much." He then swung Pride around and knocked Stain unconscious, only the slow rise and fall of his chest giving any indication of life.

 **(A/N: End Song)**

"Holy shit, I've never run so fast in my life!" Bakugo yelled before he collapsed and laid down on the rather dirty pavement, his pants and rapid chest movement giving away his already obvious exhaustion.

"I know. And I'm sorry to all of you, especially you, Shoto. I know you said to not engage him in combat, but he was about to follow through on a hit. I'm sorry-" Shoto chopped him lightly on the forehead.

"Just don't ever do anything that stupid ever again without a damn good reason. You were brave to stop him from killing that man, but don't let it get to your head." Shoto smiled. "But you handled yourself very well. Far longer than I thought any of us could."

Tenya stared at his leader wide-eyed for several seconds, expecting his leader to be far angrier than his current state of calm. However, this shocked expression was soon replaced with a receptive smile, saying to his team, "Thank you. All of you. I don't think there are nearly enough words in existence to express my gratitude."

"Don't mention it. You're our friend, that's all the reason we need to help you." Izuku said with a smile of his own.

"Not that I want to break this little circle of happiness so soon, but aren't we going to tie him up?" Bakugo said with a cautionary leg on top of Stain, just in case he was faking unconsciousness. The aforementioned direwolf faunus also dusted off his parka, small clouds of dirt rolling to the ground as he did so.

"Yeah. Let's get all of his weapons too." Shoto said as he and Tenya began looking around for a something to tie him up with. Izuku, though hesitantly, helped Bakugo search and strip Stain of all possible weapons, including his combat knives, throwing daggers, pocket razors, and even a few shuriken. His still bloodied katana stood lonely in the middle of the alley, the blade buried a quarter way into the dusty, littered concrete. Izuku was the only one of them who had the heart to remove it.

It hardly took a minute to find a spare rope in a random dumpster. They didn't know where it came from, but they were thankful for it as Shoto tied the surprisingly durable rope around Stain's torso taut and tight, keeping his arms practically glued to his sides. He then shrugged the aforementioned killer over his right shoulder, his free hand hanging off of Jotunheim's handle. Tenya and Bakugo opted to carry the various blades Stain had strapped all over his body, while Izuku held a heavily cloth wrapped Bloody Reign in his hands with Gale, now in greatsword form, reattached to the holster on his back.

"Are you sure you're gonna be alright, Tenya? You took a lot of hits before we got here." Izuku asked his spectacled teammate with concern in his voice, to which Tenya replied, "What was left of my Aura stopped most of the bleeding, so I should be fine for now. But I do think that I should get to a hospital as soon as possible."

Now, with the killer in their custody and a fire in their eyes, the team exited the alley, their new heading: the nearest hospital/police station, whichever came first. It didn't take them five seconds to find a huntsman, one that held a very familiar color style to Izuku. Was it-

Torino proceeded to jump towards the group and kick Izuku in the back of the head, promptly knocking the green-haired boy and causing him to plant his face in the sidewalk. Now, while you might think that this blow was softer than the ones Torino used on his enemies, and it was, but this was what could be classified as a 'sibling' or 'relative' strike. You know, the ones that aren't really harmful but hurt more than actually getting punched? This was like that.

"Dammit, Izuku! I gave you one job!"

"But I did the job! Everyone got out safe! And my friends needed help!" Izuku argued back, Shoto and Tenya nodding for emphasis while Bakugo reluctantly grunted to his response. Torino turned towards them as they did this, noticing what they were carrying in their arms, particularly the man Shoto had shrugged over his shoulder. Torino's eyes became the size of dinner plates, slowly turning back down to Izuku before he stepped off of the green haired boy, saying, "You damn fool. You actually went after a man that dangerous without any backup? *Sigh*" Torino chuckled a bit and smiled. "You really are a lot like him."

"I don't mean to be rude, but who are you?" Shoto asked Torino with a confused look in his gaze.

"Ah, yes. My name is Gran Torino! I'm Izuku's mentor for the rest of the week. And you all are?" This caused the other three varying reactions, though none of them were recognition.

"Tenya Iida, at your service." He bowed respectfully as he said this, careful to not drop the many blades he held in his hands.

"Katsuki Bakugo." This was possibly one of the only times Bakugo had ever said anything without a condescending tone. No, seriously.

"Shoto Todoroki. I'm the leader of this outfit." He said with a blank expression, though that wasn't to say he wasn't impressed with Torino's display.

"Wait, what happened to you after you launched yourself at that... whatever that thing was, Torino?" Izuku asked, now dusting himself off and making sure that Gale wasn't damaged by Torino's landing, which, thankfully, it wasn't

"That story can wait till we get to the hospital, Izuku. Now, let's get going, or Stain's gonna wake up." He said before they left for their destination, the echoing clicks of his walking stick hitting the cool concrete sidewalk beneath their feet a welcome change to the once desolate and deafening silence that had surrounded them.

 _(ten minutes earlier, the streets of Vale)_

"Get the civilians to safety and find more hunters to evacuate the area! I'll hold this thing off!" Torino yelled to his pupil before launching himself at the pale humanoid monster that eerily resembled a Grimm, sending him and the thing he was now pushing away from the populous.

The Grimm hardly put up a fight as they sped through the streets of Vale, Torino ducking and weaving through the sparsely inhabited streets, too focused on isolating the monster he was currently pushing to notice that it had seemingly gone completely limp.

This was soon rectified when Torino, in an amazing stroke of luck, managed to crash it into a rather shabby looking abandoned building that immediately collapsed onto it as Torino redirected his own trajectory, leaping off of the monster's chest and just barely avoiding getting hit by debris.

The battle was not yet finished, however, as merely seconds had passed before the thing burst from the rubble with hardly a scratch on its body before lunging once more at Torino, with an even more feral look in its gaze than before. The aforementioned old man just barely dodged out of the way, since in isolating this thing away from possible civilian casualties he'd basically used up half of his Aura, which, while good for them, left him particularly susceptible to heavy attacks.

Torino, now halfway exhausted and thoroughly pissed off, thought, _fuck it all_ , and extended his Shinboku to its full length, twirling it around in an experimental manner before the thing launched itself at him again and the monochrome colored huntsman promptly smacked it upside the head, stunning it long enough for Torino to jab Shinboku at the exposed brain, which, while it didn't come close to killing the thing, still hurt like hell, evidenced by the fact that it screamed in a rather agonized manner while it clutched the point Torino had jabbed at.

This action, however painful, only seemed to agitate the thing even more, screaming twice as loudly in anger, its dead, emotionless eyes, spotting Torino not half a second later before once more launching itself at him yet again. However, instead of making a full-on assault like Torino was expecting, it instead used the charge as a feint, causing Torino to dodge left before it made a sharp, 180 turn before it swiped at the old man's feet, a move that, while unpredictable, he still managed to jump over.

Torino then hurled Shiboku like a javelin at the back of the things still exposed brain only for it to swat the staff out of the air like a blunt toothpick. While this didn't bother Torino all that much, it did confirm one thing about this monster that he was afraid of. It was learning far faster than any other Grimm possibly could.

However, this problem was replaced with another when a pillar of pure fire shot towards the thing, setting it alight and causing it to once more scream out- okay, I've used that phrase way too much now.

"I was looking for that rather elusive 'Huntsman Hunter.' But I guess this thing will just have to do. Thanks for the help, old timer. Although, I'm afraid I don't know you." A deep, confident and rather cocky voice said as he approached the scene. The man was very tall, even if All Might still had at least ten inches on him, his muscular body structure clearly showing through his navy-blue body suit. Orange flames of the same hue as the ones he'd shot earlier lined his suit, streaming across his chest, arms, and particularly his shoulders, shaping what almost looked to be extremely spiky pauldrons; and actually appeared to be what his boots were almost entirely made of. The flames also comprised his short beard, mustache, and the makeshift domino mask he wore, almost entirely obscuring his sea blue eyes and short spiky red hair. He also wore a pair of white bracers in a cage pattern as well as a black belt with a small white pouch on his right hip to complete the outfit. There was no mistaking this man.

He was Enji Todoroki, better known by his codename, Endeavor. He was second most powerful huntsman in the world, a member of the Big Four, infamous for the amount of Grimm he'd slain, and only surpassed by All Might himself.

"I'll take it from here." Was the last thing Endeavor said before the thing wailed once again, it's form beginning to twist and contort as it's body structure began to almost inflate, absorbing the flames littered all across its body like a five-course meal. When it was finished, it was almost Endeavor's height, most of the muscle going to his upper torso and arms, his legs and lower body remaining as they were. It smashed its fists into the pavement before launching itself towards the new attacker, its hands raised to deliver a two-handed hammer smash right into Endeavor's skull.

This hardly phased the Huntsman, simply raising his hand before shooting yet another pillar of flame at the beast, causing it to scream in pure, unfiltered pain as it slowly burnt to ash, and the ash was burnt to the point that it was disintegrated. When Endeavor finally let up, there wasn't even a trace of the thing. Just the heat in the night air and the slight scorch marks left by the first pillar littered about the abandoned sector.

"Geez, you went overboard," Torino said with Shinboku now collapsed to its normal form and supporting his small frame once more.

"I cannot afford to hold back when it comes to Grimm. Those monstrosities have slaughtered thousands of us, I see no reason as to why I should hold back against them."

"Because this isn't the frontier. You can't incinerate anything you please as long as it kills Grimm. We're in the middle of an inhabited city, and you need to be more mindful of collateral-"

They were then interrupted once when a roar not unlike the one the Nomu at the docks had pierced the air around them, forcing them to cover their ears as the noise of battle rang out from the center of the city. Torino's thoughts then shifted to Izuku, who, if he was following the orders the old man had given him, was currently evacuating civilians and more than likely doing something stupidly heroic to keep them safe. _Damn you and your influential habits, Toshinori!_

Without waiting for Endeavor to give any sort of order, Torino zipped towards the chaotic streets of Vale, his thoughts only concerned with the safety of the civilians he could find as well as his pupil.

 _(5:56 am, Vale Central Hospital)_

"After that encounter, I scoured the streets of Vale for about three minutes before I finally ran into you four with Stain himself in your custody. And... well, you all know the rest." Torino finished explaining as they sat in Tenya's hospital room, the looks on each of the listeners faces either shocked, approving, jealous, or ominous respectively. Torino himself was sitting in front of them on a chair with his legs crisscrossed and Shinboku in his right hand and a half full cup of black, still steaming coffee in his left. The others sat across from him with mugs of their own, with Izuku sat attentively in one of the chairs next to the hospital bed that Tenya was currently laying on giving similar attention while Bakugo sat on the other side of it with his arms crossed. Shoto, after hearing Torino's explanation, stared down at his lap with anger seeping into his gaze.

"Endeavor is... he's actually here?" Shoto half muttered to no one in particular, not really wanting to believe it himself. He knew the man wanted to show his powers off to eager fans and recruiters at the Vytal festival, for him to show off his full capabilities. But he was determined to do no such thing. He had no intention of following any path that man laid out for him.

"… yes, he is," Torino answered, noticing the solemn look that Shoto tried to hide, though he didn't explicitly point it out. "I haven't seen him since he incinerated that thing-"

"Nomu." Izuku corrected out of habit, catching his out of character action, covering his mouth and muttering a muffled "Sorry," from behind his hand.

"No need to apologize, boy. I had to put a name to that things face anyways. But no, I haven't seen Endeavor since then. If I had to guess, he's likely helping other huntsman deal with the aftermath of the attack."

"'Help' is a strong word when it comes to that man," Shoto said in an angered tone, causing him to clench his right hand. Ice began to form on and around his aforementioned arm, causing the room's temperature to drop a few degrees.

"Shoto?" Izuku asked with concern in his voice, causing the half and half leader to snap out of his angered stupor. As a result, the temperature in the room returned to normal and the ice that had formed on his body earlier had now all but disappeared.

"Sorry. I... I didn't mean to get angry." Shoto apologized to everyone present.

"That's quite alright... Shoto, was it?" Torino asked. The half and half leader nodded in confirmation. "Even the best of us can get angry sometimes. Natural emotions are nothing to be ashamed of."

"I... I'm not so sure about that."

"Well, that's really just my opinion. Some real advice, though? Don't bottle them up, kid. It's unhealthy and unfair for everyone involved, especially yourself."

As Torino finished saying this, the lights in the room suddenly flickered off, coming back almost as soon as they were gone. Was it a power surge? Oh well, it wasn't really cause for concern. They happened often enough for it to not be unusual.

"Well, I'm gonna get back to my apartment now. Thank you for the coffee, but I think we all need some actual sleep-" Another, longer flicker interrupted him, accompanied now by a slight boom which caused a light shake throughout the entire building. What the hell was going on? Earthquakes were nearly impossible in Vale, and even then, they'd hardly even be this noticeable. Something was wrong. Very, incredibly wrong.

"What the hell's going on?" Bakugo voiced the question on everyone's mind, though it was a bit more vulgar than the way anyone else would've voiced it. A longer surge, a louder boom, and a larger shake. The faint echoes of gathering screams began to sound throughout the walls of the hospital, the panic and chaos currently ensuing quickly becoming obvious even at this distance.

Torino then chugged the rest of his coffee and rose from his chair, Shinboku clacking against the tile floor of the pastel white room, saying, "I'm going to see what the ruckus is all about. You're welcome to come with, of course, but I can't guarantee we'll be able to stick together. You up for the risk?"

At this, Shoto simply smirked, rising from his seat before he quipped back at Torino, "Are you underestimating us, old man?" before he too finished the last of his coffee, prompting his other teammates to stand with him. One of the veins on Torino's forehead visibly bulged, his annoyance at being called that obvious to anybody that looked closely enough. He quickly shrugged it off, however, looking to his teammates for their responses.

"I can't rightly abandon somebody in need. I'm coming with you," was Izuku's response to Torino's sarcastic challenge, standing with his leader before he too drank the last of his coffee and crushed the paper foam cup that once held the black liquid. Although Izuku did know that it was sarcastic, his response was entirely serious.

"I've been itching to blow something up for a while now. Let's go kill some Grimm." Bakugo then held his cup above his now agape mouth, spilling the dark contents into it without a single drop touching the floor. It would've felt like a searing hot, nearly unbearable pain to anyone else. For him? It just felt like drinking warm water with a bitter taste. Feeling the need to cap off this caffeine rush, he crushed the cup and burnt it to ash, tossing the remains in the nearby metal trashcan. This action caused Shoto to smirk and Izuku to somehow look intimidated ad confident at the same time. Yes, he was still afraid of Bakugo, even now, but he was happy that they had him on their side.

"I'd come with you, but after the fight we had with Stain I don't think I have nearly enough Aura to survive a fight with a Juvenile Beowolf, let alone one of those Nomu things Endeavor was forced to incinerate," Tenya said as he too finished the last of his coffee, but in a much calmer manner before he accurately threw his cup from where he sat on his bed to the metal trashcan on the other side of the room. He then stood and grabbed Pride from its earlier position on the wall, using it to steady his still tired limbs as he told his teammates, and by extension Torino, "But I can still cover you from here. I just need to get to the roof."

"Are you sure, Tenya? You lost a lot of blood before we managed to get you here." Shoto asked with concern in his voice.

"If Four Eyes wants to give cover fire, let him. Stain wasn't really that hard to beat, what problems aiming and shooting supposed to pose to him." Bakugo interjected.

"I-I-I d-don't think t-t-that's what he's g-getting at." Izuku said nervously to his team. "I-I-if he's up t-there for t-t-too long and s-somehow collapses, there'll b-be n-n-no one to h-help him."

"Thank you for the concern, Izuku, but I'll be fine. Just find someone to take me to the roof and I'll do the rest." Tenya stated to the away team firmly, leaving no room for any of his teammates, or even Torino himself, to argue.

"Just be careful." Shoto warned the spectacled sniper before he, Izuku and Bakugo grabbed their respective weapons from the same wall, the former strapping Jotunheim and Muspelheim to his hips while his partner holstered Gale securely to his back. Bakugo slipped on his gloves and bracers, cracking his knuckles once they were on and extending the knuckle spikes, ready to brutal pulverize anything that had the misfortune of fighting him.

"Okay." Torino said with a satisfied smile on his face, the team nervous but ready. "Let's go kill some Grimm!"

 **A/N: And that's a wrap! Sorry this chapter was shorter than I wanted it to be. I was actually planning on finishing the entirety of the Breach Arc in this chapter, but that would've taken way too long and stretched me way too thin. I can only write so much before I burn out, and I felt like doing something awesome for you guys. You're all the best, seriously.**

 **I'm also sorry if this chapter seemed a little lackluster compared to the others. And if you're wondering how they managed to beat Stain so easily, it was because they outnumbered him 4 to 1 and they all had to fight like hell and even then, they were still incredibly exhausted afterward. Stain, while he is great against individual hunters, is not very good when facing off against multiple combatants. He was sorely outnumbered and hilariously outgunned. He pissed off the wrong team.**

 **And now, the profile on my least favorite character in all of HeroAca, the man who basically tortured his own son and passed it off as training, Enji Todoroki.**

 **Seriously, f*$ this guy:**

 **12- Enji Todoroki/Endeavor**

 **Age: 45**

 **Handedness: Right**

 **BDay: 8/8**

 **Race: Human**

 **Hair: Short, Spiky and Red**

 **Eyes: Blue**

 **Blood Type: AB**

 **Height: 195cm/6'4 ¾"**

 **Gender: M**

 **Semblance: Hell Flame, allows Endeavor to manipulate and generate fire seemingly at will, making it one of the strongest semblances ever wielded by anyone, though it requires the air to have oxygen or flammable chemicals within it to work properly.**

 **Weapon: Helheim, a European style Claymore almost as tall as Endeavor himself with a crimson red blade that can set itself alight with the push of a button. However, Endeavor rarely uses this weapon unless his is in a very dire straight and uses his bare hands to fight most opponents.**

 **Fighting Style: Slugger Boxing, Advanced Greatsword Techniques**

 **Range: All**

 **Next Chapter: Dec. 1st**

 **Have a happy Thanksgiving, and I'll see you in the next one!**


	19. The Breach Part 1

**A/N: I have recently realized that I left a couple of the questions I asked a few chapters back unanswered, and I am sorry about that. I'll provide the answers for the two I can properly remember off the top of my head right now.**

 **Tokoyami is the leader of Team TAKT (I mean, Tsuyu is awesome, I won't deny that, but to be entirely honest I don't think she's really leader material) and Thoth was minorly based off of both the Egyptian god of the same name with the personality of Littlefinger from Game of Thrones. Well, the style and presentation. He is an info broker. Don't worry, he's much more of a neutral party in this story. Although that could change at any given moment. Now, with that out of the way, enjoy the Chapter!**

 **Disclaimer: I do not own RWBY or My Hero Academia. They belong to Monty Oum, Kohei Horikoshi, and their respective publishing companies. Please support the official releases.**

 **I do not own the cover image**

Chapter 19: The Breach Part 1

The streets were in chaos. That was the only way Izuku could describe the panic and mayhem that was ensuing in front of his eyes. Grimm of all kinds poured out by the dozens through the now open underground tunnels, blown apart by some unknown third party. It didn't matter who, at least not at the moment. All that mattered was that there were Grimm in the city and they had to be stopped.

When Torino said that it was unlikely that they would be able to stay together, he wasn't kidding. They all chose a direction to head to within the first five seconds they'd stepped outside the hospital. Judging by the architecture of the area, Izuku guessed that he was likely somewhere in the shopping district, which was also where Mei and Maijima had set up shop. Noting this, Izuku slashed through the Grimm littering the street with Gale in its greatsword form; long, heavy slashes and overhead smash strikes his greatest offense and defense.

Izuku cleaved a lunging Beowolf in two, the halves of the sparsely bone plated Grimm dissolving almost as soon as he'd completed the motion. However, he'd accidentally used a bit too much force and found his blade buried partway in the pavement. Another Beowolf took this opportunity to launch itself at the green-haired boy with a howling vengeance in its eyes, and before Izuku could propel himself upwards to use his shotgun boots, it was immediately shredded to pieces by a nearby heavy machine gun.

"Oh! Hey there, Izuku!" Mei said with her usual giddy smile on her face and the aforementioned heavy machine gun in her surprisingly strong arms, the barrel of the gun itself still smoking from the recently fired bullets. "Great morning, isn't it?" She then proceeded to turn to her left and shred a pack of six Beowolfs to mincemeat.

"I don't know how this could possibly qualify as a good morning for you, Mei!" Izuku shouted as he ripped Gale free of the ground and swung through a Beowolf Alpha, which, while it did not split the beast in half, still managed to kill it in the one, singular swoop.

"It's free live fire practice! Now I can see if these guns work properly without wasting any dummies!" was the excuse she used before she popped off an Ursa without looking, the same smile as before still plastered to her face.

 _Of course she'd be excited for something like this. She's an even bigger weapons nut than Ruby._ Izuku thought as he waded through the still dissolving Grimm corpses towards his friend, sheathing the still unbloodied Gale onto his back. However, when he got approached her all she did was had him the heavy machine gun and said, "Hold them off for a minute, would ya?"

"But I don't use guns!"

"You've got shotguns strapped to your feet, it shouldn't be all that hard. Just point and squeeze," was all the advice Mei had to offer before she darted back inside the shop, likely to get yet another firearm of even more destructive design.

These thoughts were shaken from his mind as Izuku soon found himself surrounded by minor Grimm once more. Beowolves and Ursai were the most prevalent and numerous of thhe ones present in the horde, with a few Beowolf Alphas and even an Ursa Major mixed in there.

Izuku, panicking, held the heavy machine gun in his hands in an almost vice like grip before he gathered his bearings and began searching for the proper handholds, eventually finding them and the trigger, squeezing the former just as Mei had told him to. The sudden sharp cracks of two bullets being fired surprised him almost as much as the recoil, nearly causing him to drop the gun entirely in the process. Still, the bullets managed to find their marks in two Beowolves, and Izuku had managed to catch the instrument of death before it fell to the ground. The green-haired boy once more gripped the large death dealing gun and held it a bit more properly, this time preparing for the recoil before he began to once more fire at the slowly increasing Grimm horde.

To say he hit every one of them would be an overstatement. To say he constantly missed would be underselling him. While he didn't manage to kill every single Grimm in the approaching horde, Izuku did manage to thin them out considerably, killing several of the minor Beowolves and Ursai and managing to kill two of the Alphas. Despite this, the Ursa Major and two of the more heavily armored Alphas were still standing, though the latter had some bullet holes littering the various unarmored regions of their bodies. Unfortunately for Izuku, none of them were vital points.

It was at this moment that Mei had decided to gloriously emerge from the workshop with an angular, almost pillar looking rocket launcher almost twice her size, with Maijima yelling, "Every scratch you put on those weapons is coming out of your paycheck, young lady!" as if he were a parent scolding a child. This did not dampen her mood, however, as she proceeded to secure the launcher over her shoulder and begin to fire it, peppering the streets with fire and mortar and killing most of the Grimm. All except the Ursa Major.

"Aw, man. I really didn't want to have to use this form. *Sigh* Oh well." Mei complained as she switched to the weapons second form. Which just so happened to be a club as thick and dense as a stone pillar and nearly twice her size.

.

..

…

How the hell was she lifting that thing like it weighed nothing at all?!

Mei, despite making it look like the weapon weighed nothing, strained herself slightly under the weight of it and nearly dropped it after a few seconds, though she managed to place it on the ground gently so that she could find the firing mechanism and push it, shooting a rocket out of the far end and launching her into the air at least a story above the shopping districts rooftops. After taking a quick second to admire the view, she raised the far end of the club towards the sky and fired once more, launching a heat seeking rocket at the Ursa Major as she came down and slammed her massive weapon onto the things bone spiked back, the resulting rocket explosion ensuring that it died and stayed dead.

Mei stood and heaved the massive club over her shoulder, commenting, "Dammit. I really wanted to get launched by the rocket, not launch another one. I'll have to modify that..."

 _That's what she's worried about right now?!_ Izuku silently yelled at the pink dreadlock haired girl, his jaw practically hitting the floor from the display of raw power he'd just observed.

"Mei, Izuku! Get back!" Maijima yelled from the shop, emerging with a hulking metal exoskeleton lined with guns and ammo clips. In his hands he carried two of the same type of heavy machine gun models that Mei had handed off to Izuku with a gigantic sword and two spare shotguns strapped to his back. Mounted on the shoulders were two miniguns with shells upon shells of ammo lined, primed and ready to fire. Maijima stood at least a foot and a half taller than he otherwise would have normally. There was no doubt they could hold the shopping district now.

Almost as soon as Maijima had emerged with the aforementioned walking weapon strapped to his body, he aimed and fired at an overhead Nevermore, which had begun a nose dive for the shopping district in the few seconds Mei and Izuku hadn't been smashing Grimm. It too hardly stood a chance against the sheer firepower of the guns that Maijima held, dissolving into ash within seconds.

"Don't worry about us, Izuku." Maijima reassured the green-haired boy as he reloaded his machine guns. "You get to the less fortified parts of Vale and help out there. We can hold the shopping district."

"But-"

"No buts! Now get moving!" That was the last thing he said before even more Grimm began to refill the streets, joining Mei in an effort to keep the damage to a minimum.

Izuku, though reluctantly, did as the masked ex-hunter asked, slinging Gale into its holster and dashing towards the exit of the district, the sounds of explosions, gunfire, and Beowolf death howls at his back.

He ran through the still chaotic streets of Vale, helping civilians and hunters as he went and slaying Grimm of varying types and sizes whenever the opportunity presented itself. The trek was long and tedious, and even though it wasn't exhausting for him, as it would be for most normal people, it was still annoying to a degree. The Grimm weren't thinning out in the slightest. Why was that? Was there really that much negativity in the city?

These thoughts were shaken from his mind when he saw another Nomu smash a familiarly dressed direwolf faunus through a nearby building, causing him to slam into a wall, a crater outlining where he landed as evidence of the beast's strength. Bakugo, now temporarily paralyzed due to the force of the landing, began to plummet towards the ground face first before he was unwillingly helped by the person of his undeserved eternal hatred, and the green haired boy dragged him into a nearby alleyway so that he could recover.

"What the fuck did you do that for, Deku?" Bakugo asked with rage in his tone, causing Izuku to flinch at his nearly age-old nickname. "I had it under control."

"N-no, you didn't. Y-you were getting b-beaten to a pulp, and n-now your Aura's nearly gone." Izuku said as he just barely managed to keep his full nervous stutter at bay, shrugging the ashen blonde off of his shoulders and propping him against a nearby wall. "You saw the resemblance too, right? To the thing at the docks?"

"I don't care what the fuck it looks like. When I find that thing I'm gonna kill it and then I'll burn the corpse till there isn't even ash left." Bakugo stubbornly stated as he lifted his battered and tired body from the wall, despite Izuku's unwelcome protests.

"Bakugo-"

"No! I am not gonna run from that thing! I do not run! Not now, not then, not ever!" Bakugo turned to Izuku with hatred in his gaze. "And even if you are stronger than me, I don't want your help!"

Izuku had finally had enough, stepping over to Bakugo in an instant and socked him right across his face, the rage of the ashen blonde suddenly, and sharply, quelling itself.

"I am not stronger than you, or anyone else we know, and I've known for a long time you've never wanted help with anything. But right now, like it or not, you need my help."

"Dammit, Deku, were you not listening to me-"

"No, you listen to me for once in your Oum dammed life, Katsuki!" Izuku yelled finally pushed over the edge by Bakugo's seemingly instinctual nature to reject any and all help from almost everyone. "That Nomu is stronger than anything either of us have ever faced. It could more than likely kill a fully grown Nevermore with little to no effort at all. I know you don't like me, and I... haven't had the highest opinion of you either.

"But damn it, work with me for once so that we can kill this Nomu before it can get to a populated sector of the city. Deal?" Izuku offered his hand to his teammate.

Bakugo was actually shocked. Not only had Izuku used his first name, or that he actually cursed at him, but he'd made several points that he couldn't ignore. If they let the Nomu continue rampaging through the city to a populated area, hundreds could die. If he went out there and charged the thing without a plan, he'd probably get himself killed. As much as he really, really hated to admit it, the best way for everyone to get out alive was for them to work together.

Oum dammit, this better be worth the trouble!

 _(two minutes later...)_

The Nomu Beta, or Nomu B 02, was currently trying to find anything with an Aura signature so that it could snap their spindly little necks and rip their bodies limb from limb. Find. Hunt. Fight. Kill. Repeat. Smash that building. No Aura. Leave.

Luckily this particular district of Vale had been all but abandoned, making every building ample cover for the two huntsmen in training. The Nomu B had seemed as though it was looking for something, like a hunting dog trying to pick up a scent. Twice it had nearly spotted them when they had moved to different cover in order to keep up with the hulking beast.

"Okay, this thing is either killing everything it sees or hunting people with any amount of Aura. I wonder why it hasn't spotted us yet?" Izuku thought aloud.

"It probably can't see very well. I didn't see any eyes when we were fighting, so it might be relying on sound and smell, maybe some type of sixth sense."

"It doesn't matter. The original plan still applies." Izuku brought Gale off of its holster, holding with his lonesome dominant hand with the blade resting on his shoulder.

"Grrr... you'd better be right about this, Deku." Bakugo said as he loaded his bracelet-guns with the new ammo they'd found. They just hoped that it would be enough.

"Okay. One. Two. Three!" Izuku said as he and Bakugo took their planned positions, the former opting to jump wall to wall up to the roof while Bakugo charged the behemoth without a battle cry, surprisingly enough.

The Nomu B then picked up an Aura signature, a familiar one at that. It turned to face Bakugo once more, a guttural roar nearly escaping its nonexistent lips before Bakugo did something he'd only ever done in practice. He used tactics.

When the Nomu swung at him, instead of blasting it back like he normally would, he ducked under its arm and through its currently spread legs, firing off his guns at the beast's feet and lower legs. But they weren't loaded with fire Dust. The Nomu tried its best to turn, but found itself stuck in place, unable to lift its feet or shift its hips. Bakugo had loaded his guns with ice Dust. The ashen blonde direwolf really hoped his guns didn't jam, they weren't designed to shoot anything but fire Dust.

The Nomu tried its damnedest to break out of the ice dust, but to no avail of any kind. It was stuck, unable to even crack the slowly extending cold that crept from its legs to it lower torso. It certainly didn't help its case that the faunus who'd placed the ice on him in the first place hadn't stopped, shooting bullet after bullet of ice dust to immobilize its back and arms, the only thing still exposed being its head.

"NOW, DEKU!" Bakugo called out to his teammate. Izuku, with Gale drawn and extended into scythe mode, jumped off of the nearby building he'd climbed up and plummeted downwards with Full Cowl activated, his arms raised to deliver the killing blow to the frozen Nomu. And, like a meteorite of pure retribution, the blow was delivered. The ice that had encased the Nomu shattered from the force, a large, deep laceration stretching from its right shoulder to its lower left torso letting out a seemingly unending torrent of blood.

Bakugo heaved heavily for a few seconds before managing to stand up and catch his breath, kicking the Nomu's still and stiff corpse with a harsh but satisfied look in his eye for good measure. "It's dead... HA HA! IT'S DEAD!"

"C'mon, Bakugo. We've gotta get to the other parts of the city." Izuku told his teammate as he retracted Gale to its greatsword form, thought he still rested the weapon on his right shoulder.

"Yeah, yeah." Bakugo muttered as he reluctantly shuffled back to the green-haired boy, checking his guns for any jams that the ice Dust ammo may have caused, of which he found none. Satisfied, he turned his gaze back to the road in front of him, ready to take on whatever Grimm might challenge him next.

Unfortunately, the Nomu that they had struck down was not yet dead, and with shaking arms stood itself up and let out a loud, guttural roar. Turning, they saw that while the Nomu's gash had by no means recovered, and it hadn't even stopped bleeding, but that hardly mattered as it slowly but surely began hulking over to them.

"How is that thing still alive?!"

"Don't know, don't care!" Bakugo said as he rushed towards the Nomu once more, yelling back to Izuku, "You get to the other parts of the city! I'll kill this son of a bitch!"

The aforementioned inheritor, however, didn't run away, but for some unknown reason he couldn't move to help his stubborn teammate either. All he could do at that moment in time was watch. Bakugo began channeling the last of his Aura into his arms, craning his hands into claw-like positions as his forearms almost began to pulsate with energy, first glowing orange, then slowly shifting to a lighter shade of yellow and finally settling on a bright, nearly ethereal white. The Nomu hadn't stopped its approach, however, slowly dragging itself over to where Bakugo stood with a particularly bestial look in its eyes.

It was when Izuku recognized this look that he began to move towards Bakugo, sensing that if he didn't move, he would die. Bakugo, however, had a different idea.

"Stay back Deku! Or you'll get caught in the blast! I can take this thing!" He yelled at the green-haired boy, affirming that he was going to put everything into this one final attack. His internal monologue raged throughout his head as the Nomu continued to hulk towards them ominously, the concrete early cracking beneath its feet.

 _I am not going to keep being outdone. I don't care if my teammates can bring down titans, control two of the most powerful forces in nature, or potentially move faster than light itself. I am not weak. I will not be weak. Not now, not ever. Not like him. Not like dad._

"CLAN TECHNIQUE: MAGNESIEUM PHOSPHROSUS DETONATION!" Bakugo shouted at the top of his lungs, feeling his voice nearly go hoarse before a flash of blinding white light erupted from his hands, causing Izuku to avert his gaze so as to not be blinded.

When the flash had finally passed, Izuku gazed upon the destruction that Bakugo's final attack had wrought. The Nomu was gone, not a trace of it left in the large crater that the blast had made, leaving a few of the nearby building singed to a darker shade. White ash slowly floated downwards from the sky like snow, the only thing to suggest it wasn't being the lack of clouds overhead. Bakugo stood where he was when the attack went off, his breathing so heavy that his shoulders moved up and down every time he inhaled and exhaled.

The ashen blonde could not stay upright, however, as it was only a few seconds after the flash had gone away that he'd begun to fall over headfirst towards the ground. At that point, however, Izuku had rushed over to his teammate and was able to catch him by the hood of his parka, slinging Bakugo's limp body underneath his left arm while his right still held Gale over his shoulder.

"*Pant**Pant**Pant* Is it *Pant**Pant* finally dead?" Bakugo huffed out.

"… Yeah. I think it is." Izuku confirmed his teammates suspicions.

"Hey, Deku?"

"What is it?"

"Why do you keep helping me? I could've handled this myself, dammit."

Izuku had never really been posed this question before by anyone, so for a few seconds he stayed silent as he tried to think of an answer to it. He then took a deep breath and said, "I don't help people because it's something I have to do. I don't do it for the glory or the fame, not the money or the satisfaction. I do it because I want to help every person that I can, however I can. I know that it's childish to believe that I can save everyone. You'd need the power of a god to save even half the people on this planet. But... I'll do everything in my power for the people that I _can_ save, even if they don't want my help. I only started thinking about this a month or two ago, but in that time, I've come to realize that there's a very large difference between wanting help and needing help. And that the two feelings rarely align.

"You've never wanted to be helped by anyone, and I understand that. But that doesn't mean that you don't need help sometimes. I did. It's the only reason I'm standing here right now. You might have the strength to help thousands of people Bakugo, and I respect the fact that we didn't enroll at Beacon for the exact same reasons, even if they may have been similar, maybe even the same at one point in our lives; but... sometimes you need to show some humility and let others help you for a change."

"Haha... I'll give you this Deku, that was a hell of a speech. But I don't... need help... from anyone... dumbass..." were the last words Bakugo uttered before the exhaustion finally caught up to him and the ashen blonde direwolf passed out.

 _Stubborn till the end. Heh. Well, that's why he's Bakugo after all._ Izuku thought to himself before he began to walk towards the hospital, the dull, distant cracks of Tenya's sniper rifle covering his way over.

 _(10 minutes later, Vale Central Plaza)_

Soon after Izuku had carried his teammate to the hospital, he heard rather loud battle cries and explosions coming from the center of the city. When he was sure Bakugo was in good hands and that Tenya hadn't passed out, the green-haired boy sped off to the plaza to help the ones currently combating the Grimm that had likely begun to occupy the area.

When he arrived it seemed as though they had the Grimm situation under control. Team RWBY were holding the main plateau of the plaza, various smoking Grimm corpses littering the concrete around them. Ruby was slicing her way through a few combined packs of Beowolves, slicing through their juvenile bone plates and armor with practiced ease; Weiss similarly made quick work of the Creeps that had begun to surround her; Blake was stabbing them through their vulnerable necks and popping off a few Beowolves whenever she found an opening, and Yang, being the brawler that she was, smashed through any Grimm unlucky enough to oppose her.

JNPR made similar work of the outskirts of the plateau. Jaune and a half-formed Lancelot sliced through Grimm of varying sizes, though they seemed to be particularly focused on killing Ursai and Ursa Majors; Nora happily bounced around the battlefield, the grenades still loaded into her hammer going off and blowing anything on the business end to smithereens; Pyrrha fought like a spartan with the grace of a dancer, killing dozens of Creeps, Beowolves, and Ursai with practiced ease; Ren operated ion a similar fashion to Blake, getting off potshots and offering cover fire form the sidelines until he found an opening to strike.

He actually saw a few members from Cinder's team join in on the action, keeping some of the spare Grimm from funneling through the various alleyways. Emerald actually managed to kill an Ursa Major by herself, though her overconfidence nearly got her killed when she failed to notice another begin to take a swipe at her head. She was saved by the always masked Dabi, who killed the Grimm with even less effort than she had, using only a single, seemingly effortless slash to cut the Ursa Major in half. Emerald only seemed annoyed by this fact, however, despite the fact that Dabi had just saved her life. Did she have a grudge against him or something? Oh well, it didn't matter anyway.

Even Sun and Neptune were helping out in the effort to beat the Grimm back, the former straight up blowing their heads off while the latter gave covering fire. The Atlas forces that got there soon afterwards, while they weren't nearly as good at killing the Grimm as the aforementioned student teams, still managed to mop up most of the stragglers.

In short, they were doing just fine without his intervention. Well, a King Taijitu literally just crushed a bakery, but Yang and Nora had obliterated it soon afterwards.

That was when the Nomu from the docks fell to the now shattered concrete with All Might at its heels, a flurry of blows greeting its ample and vulnerable body as the crater it had formed from the impact began to enlarge itself due to the sheer force of the blows that crashed into its dark, scar littered skin, the tan shorts that once covered its upper legs now littered with holes, the only parts still intact being the bone plating on its knees. How was it still alive and how did it even manage to traverse that much water? No one present knew the answer, and none of them would for a very long time.

Despite the fact that its opponent was All Might, it managed to push the Symbol of Hope away, hitting the massive twin spiked blonde so far that he nearly crashed into a building, the only reason he didn't being that he managed to dig his heels into the concrete and almost stop his momentum entirely. Though most of the other trainees had finished with their own section of Grimm control, they too were forced to watch from the sidelines with only their voices offering support.

This was a fight between powers they could not yet match, and that very few of them ever would.

 **(A/N: "You Say Run OST" from My Hero Academia)**

All Might's gigantic muscular frame began to heat, or at least appeared to. Steam rolled off his skin like sweat; slow, barely noticeable, but there nonetheless. He barely had three, maybe four minutes left in his powered form if he was lucky. What with all the chaos around Vale, even with the help of the other huntsmen within the walls, he couldn't keep himself from old habits. After all...

What kind of huntsman would he be without them?

The Nomu charged at him with a deafening roar and a frothing maw with serrated teeth barred, viciously chomping at All Might with an unquenched rage gleaming in its eyes. He stepped out of the monster's way and delivered a crippling jab to the base of its spine, sending it sprawling like a ragdoll onto the concrete.

It quickly recovered from the blow, rising with an upper cut and a left hook which both found their marks in All Might's jaw and right shoulder, both of which did little more than irritate him at that point as he retaliated with a double right jab and a left hook to the Nomu's massive maw, a deafening crack resounding from the bone plate All Might's last strike had made contact with.

And he would not let up, leaving no time for the humanoid Grimm to recover as he grabbed its arm and threw it up into the air, appearing above it not a second later to deliver a two-handed hammer strike that sent it crashing into the already broken and mostly shattered concrete.

The Nomu barely managed to swerve itself away from the diving kick the hulking huntsman planted in the area its body once occupied, rolling to its feet to meet All Might in an exchange of furious flurries of strikes. The earth and air alike shook from the force of their blows, the ground around them began to crack and split apart. They were juggernauts of power that could hardly be contended with, and this battle was living, progressing proof of that fact.

"Holy crap! This is incredible!" Ruby exclaimed as she and several of the other students watched the battle along with Izuku, in awe of the titanical power display in front of them.

"That's All Might for you. He's the worlds Symbol of Hope for a reason." Shoto yelled over the noise as he shielded his eyes from some of the spare debris the battle managed to kick up, his blue saber drawn and minorly littered with evaporating Grimm blood.

"Yeah, but... he's not just hitting that thing with random punches either." Izuku said, as analytical as ever even in the heat of a fight this fierce.

"Wait, how can you tell that from this distance?" Yang questioned before sending buckshot into a Beowolf that had strayed too close to the group, not once turning her attention from the green haired inheritor.

"I've been calculating and analyzing these kinds of fights since I was little. It became a bit of a hobby; but that's not what's important right now. Every last one of those punches are targeted. And every single one of them has more than enough power to easily punch holes through Atlas warships."

"Holy shit! Are you serious?!" Yang and Sun exclaimed in synch.

"Dead serious. He's not taking pity on that Nomu like last time. He's aiming to obliterate it." Izuku finished his statement as All Might began to best the scared beast in the flurry exchange, ever so slowly pushing further and further forwards until the Nomu's shock absorbent body finally couldn't take any more punishment and was thrown like a weightless ragdoll into an empty building that collapsed from the sudden impact.

It wasn't long before the Nomu emerged from the rubble with several closing wounds that had bled profusely before its healing factor came into play, causing it to stumble from its impact point before All Might gripped it by the neck and hoisted it from the ground, saying to the beast these final words before he delivered the blow that would ensure his victory.

 **"I believe I've said this to you before, foul Grimm. However, back when we first fought I had no idea if you were sentient or simply a mindless beast as your bone plating suggested. Now I have no doubts to hold me back. Hear from the depths of my own soul the power of these words, and prepare for obliteration."** He cocked his right fist back as it began to glow an ethereal golden hue, filling itself with his overwhelmingly powerful Aura.

 **"GO BEYOND! PLUS!"** All Might released his grip from the Nomu as he let the strike loose in an uppercut that found its mark in its chest, the energy bubbling and shining through his back before he yelled the last word of one his most inspiring phrases, **"ULTRA!"**

The energy that emerged from his strike was bright and blinding, the sound almost like an energy blast from an old cartoon, and the force kicked up a wild gust of wind, causing all of the spectators to shield their eyes from the spectacle. Several seconds passed before the light faded and their vision was unimpaired once more. What they saw both awed and inspired them.

The Nomu was gone, completely obliterated. Nothing remained of the humanoid Grimm. All Might then dropped onto his knee, the opposite fist on the ground to help keep him stable as steam billowed from his frame, obscuring his snail pace detransformation as he continued. **"Heh. I really have gotten old. Back in my hayday it would've hardly taken five of those punches to fell that Grimm. Now it's taken over three hundred of those same mighty blows. I'll give it this, that Nomu can certainly take a punch."**

Tomura, Kurogiri and one of the League of Criminals elites shrouded in a black cloak had seen the entire ordeal from a safe distance via binoculars. In his frustration, Tomura gripped his binoculars with all five fingers and crushed it into bits and dust. He was beyond infuriated. All of that work for nothing. How dare All Might to have the gumption to stay alive.

"Fine. We'll do it ourselves."

 **(A/N: End Song)**

Kurogiri made a vortex for him, his master and the elite currently with them to a building overlooking the battle that had just taken place. Tomura resisted his urge to scratch at his neck and began his monologue to All Might and the other spectators.

Back with Izuku and co, a sarcastic clap rang throughout the still chaotic streets, reining a supreme noise to all that heard it. Izuku looked up to see Tomura, Kurogiri and a shrouded figure covered in an ominous black cloak on top of a building just next to All Might. Their pale-haired leader stopped then his applause and began his speech. "Well done, All Might. You've certainly lived up to your reputation. We fished that Nomu out of the ocean just for you, you know. They take so long to make too. This one was originally made to specifically counter your abilities; your ultimate antithesis. I don't think that any of us expected this to be the result.

"But you did something that really pissed me off. Not only did you obliterate one of the only Nomus that I was given, you made a show of it and even finished it with a flashy attack. It's so incredibly annoying. I've done everything I could think of to kill you. I guess it really goes to show that when you want something done right..."

Tomura jumped off his perch from the building and lunged at all Might, yelling the last few words of his monologue, "You gotta do it yourself!"

But he never reached the Symbol of Hope that he so desperately wanted to disintegrate. Izuku had launched at almost the exact same moment that he had, and had met his villainous 'rival' in midair before he completed a jumping side kick that knocked Tomura off course, though he managed to recover with a flip and landed near the edge of the plaza, where Team CFVY had just wrapped up the earlier Grimm horde and began to close in on him.

"Kurogiri! Time to put the newbies to work!" He yelled to the misty bartender, who obliged and let out a torrent of new recruits, hot blooded and more than ready for action. Despite their relative inexperience, Himiko with a rather large infinity scarf with a large picture of teeth on the front to conceal her identity, and another of their elites, a man dressed in a black-and-grey full-body suit that hid any distinguishing features about his body save for his physical shape and a plain white T design on the front of the suit, with red and blue armbands that completed the outfit. Tomura didn't know a whole lot about this man who'd given him the alias of Twice, nor did he really care all that much, but he'd proven himself to be reliable. Even if he was insane.

Izuku the drew Gale from his back, the blade almost seeming to glow beneath the early golden sunlight. With determination almost taking its own color in his eyes, he said to Tomura, "If you want to get to All Might, you'll have to go through us first," referring to both himself and the others who stood behind him, helping to beat down the stragglers from the recruits and keep the esspecially hotheaded ones away from the currently fatigued All Might.

Instead of being annoyed by this, as he would've been normally, Tomura felt a laugh bubble up inside of his throat, which he let out as a slight chuckle before he sobered himself and responded to Izuku's proclamation. "You've got some balls kid, saying that to my face. Well, I hope he's taught you a bit more than last time. Otherwise this'll be rather boring. And besides, I still owe you a rematch for what you did at the docks.

"So bring it on! I'll face whatever you through at me and obliterate it with my own two hands!" Tomura held up his arms in a menacing position as he and Izuku prepared to once more face off in a fight that would only be outclassed by All Might and Nomu's.

 **A/N: Aaaaaaand that's all I have time to finish. Sorry I wasn't able to finish this all the way, guys. I don't like doing two parters all that much (it's why I only did the RWBY Vol. 1 Arcs in about a chapter with the exception of Jaune's). I promise that the next chapter will have a good fight sequence to start and will calm down from there. I would've included that stuff in this chapter, but I couldn't because I had to go out of town for Thanksgiving and ended up without a whole lot of free time. I know it sounds like an excuse, and it is, but it's the truth. Thank you for your patience and support. I really wouldn't be here without it.**

 **Next Chapter: Dec. 14th**

 **See you in the next one!**


	20. The Breach Part 2

**A/N: Anyone else having problems with their review boxes? I think mine glitched out for a bit. Seriously, I couldn't access the reviews for almost a full day, and that kinda bummed me out for a while. Thank god for gmail and update messages. Let me know if you had a similar problem.**

 **On another note, over 30,000 views! Holy crap! I never thought that this story would get this much attention from... well, anyone really. I'm so grateful to every single one of you for all of your support and criticism alike. Every review you leave helps make this story what it is, and I think that's really awesome. Thank you all so much for everything. Here's to many more chapters and many more awesome memories! And reviews! Can't forget those either!**

 **But seriously though, feel free to send me reviews regarding this story. Any criticisms and suggestions are taken into consideration for the story. And yes, I know about my grammar problem, and I've been working on it the best I can.**

 **Also, who else thought that the reveal of Ilia's crush on Blake was absolutely adorable? (It actually managed to make me forget the context of their situation for a few seconds) It's good to see that Miles and Kerry haven't forgotten their promise on the LGBT relationships and characters. I personally don't think I'll actually be able to write an original LGBT relationship or character without it being cliché as hell, not to mention the fact it'd probably feel rather forced, but if any do get confirmed as canon before Volume 5 wraps up, I'll add them to the story, as long as they: 1) feel natural 2) make some sort of logical sense, and 3) don't involve Yang. I'm not going to deny the possibility that she may be bisexual, even if there is more evidence (though it is minimal) to suggest that she's attracted to guys (cite the ballroom sleepover scene in Chapter 3 of Volume 1). She and Izuku _will_ be a thing in this story, and like I've said before, not even a canon relationship confirmed by Rooster Teeth themselves will change that. The reason that they haven't gotten together yet is because 1) it's still way too soon, and 2) I want to make sure that their particular relationship feels as naturally developed as I can before they finally do get together. That and they're both really awkward about feelings they don't understand. Especially Izuku. But I will still enjoy the canon relationships just as much as the ones I make in this story, that I can promise you.**

 **Enjoy the chapter!**

 **Review Responses:**

 **Guest: Definitely Endeavor. Jacques was more than likely an incredibly terrible father, but the worst father of the year award has to go to that flame-bearded, rivalry obsessed psycho.**

 **Disclaimer: I do not own RWBY or My Hero Academia. They belong to Monty Oum, Kohei Horikoshi, and their respective publishing companies. Please support the official releases.**

 **I do not own the cover image**

Chapter 20: The Breach Part 2

 **(A/N: "Caffeine" by Jeff and Casey Lee Williams)**

Izuku and Tomura stared each other down as the echoes of battle sounded throughout the area, everywhere but the place granted to them for the standoff. It wouldn't last for much longer.

All it took was a split second for the two to charge at each other and clash halfway, a minor but visible shockwave rippling out from the combatants, the ground cracking from the strength of their exchange. But that wasn't what concerned Tomura at the moment. The fact that Izuku's weapon wasn't disintegrating from his full-hand grasp held his complete attention. In fact, the blade seemed to glow with power, as if coming into contact with Tomura's hands was somehow empowering it.

Izuku capitalized on this fact, pulling Gale from Tomura's grasp before stepping back and swinging his weapon in a large vertical arc, causing a crescent moon slice to emit itself from the edge and move at a rapid speed towards Tomura. Neither of them had expected the touch of Tomura's hand to neutralize the attack. First solid objects, now pure energy from refined dust?! And powered by his own Semblance no less?! Just how many tricks did this guy have up his sleeve?!

Tomura answered Izuku's unvoiced question, reaching into his pockets and revealed two red dust crystals, each the size of children's fists. Raw, unrefined, quite jagged and jaded in shape; pure fire dust. The hand wearing man then proceeded to crush these with his semblance, though they caused an ethereal red energy to surround and encompass the area of his hands.

As if that wasn't enough of a sign of danger, Tomura then slammed his left palm flat onto the ground, and a large trail of ashen-edged incineration began to quickly make its way towards Izuku, though he noticed it quickly enough to avoid it. The trail ended only a few feet from where the green-haired boy once stood, with heat emanating from the charred concrete as it cooled in the open air.

Okay, so Tomura had managed to somewhat solve his range problem, but the energy surrounding his left hand had dispersed as soon as he'd used the ranged attack. So, he could only use the ranged attack when he had a dust crystal's energy absorbed. How was he even able to absorb the energy in the first place? Didn't his Semblance destroy everything he held with all five fingers?

That was a question that Izuku would have to force to the back of his mind as he refocused on the fight, namely the fact that Tomura had closed the gap and had his right hand cocked back with his fingers craned into a claw. He jabbed at Izuku's head with speed that Ruby and Tenya would've both been dazed by, and Izuku himself just barely managed to avoid the attack as it sped past his right cheek, causing a slight burn mark to appear before Tomura's strike connected to a streetlight that was promptly split by the addition of the fire dust.

But Izuku was then saved by the untimely intervention of half a dozen icicles shot at Tomura with the addition of a few buckshot assisted shadow boxing punches. Izuku's two allies stood next to him, his half and half leader to his left with the blonde brawler to his right, both with similar enraged faces painted across their features.

"You just tried to kill my best friend," the two synched with equal amounts of seething rage just barely hidden by their eyes, though Yang's was only emphasized by her glowing red eyes. "Prepare to get obliterated."

Yang launched herself at Tomura with Shoto hot on her heels, both with their weapons drawn bare and ready to strike down the gray-haired man once they were within range. They never got the chance, however, as Kurogiri had appeared in front of Tomura and let the previously cloaked member of their entourage, a long-time associate who'd given himself the alias of Mr. Compress. While he would otherwise be staying to the sidelines instead of coming out to help them, he knew they were short on experienced members and had volunteered to fight if things got rough. Like they were when he emerged from Kurogiri's portal and began to fend off Shoto with nothing but his cane sword held in a casually loose grip. He wasn't really a fighter, and didn't like to really damage his normal outfit, which was why he wore his full head mask in addition to the cowl and cape in which Jotunheim's blade had now made several holes.

Yang and Kurogiri were having a rematch of their own, Yang aiming for the plates that encompassed Kurogiri's physical body while he randomly warped her punches and buckshot all across their battlefield, though he made sure that the distances weren't close enough to his fellow villains to harm them. In fact, he seemed to be especially versed in using Yang's attacks against her, angering the brawler to no end as her eyes continued to glow an even brighter red hue than the earlier intervention.

Speaking of which, Izuku was currently trying to hit Tomura with the mode of the weapon with which he had more expertise, scythe mode, but even this proved to be a fruitless effort as Tomura instead used various ranged attacks and slid by and along the length of the handle to directly strike at Izuku and quickly retreat before he could properly align his shotgun boots. The green-haired boy had managed to get off a couple of shots, but those had also proven to be pointless, as Tomura dodged almost every single shot with the exception of the primary round.

Izuku had fared better with the greatsword; not well, but better than with the scythe, and would've tried to shift it back were it not for the fact that Tomura wouldn't let up long enough for him to do just that. As if some sort of deity had seen his current plight, Jaune managed to beat down some of his enemies, which allowed him to see Izuku's struggling and, being the person he was, the blonde haired boy immediately shot off to help his friend with Lancelot's torso and arms trailing behind him, still gripping onto the ghostly white giants longsword.

Izuku shouted his thanks to the hoodie wearing swordsman as he twisted the pommel on the end of Gale to turn it back into a greatsword. The shift took seven precious seconds, seconds that Jaune and Lancelot had spent fighting against Tomura. They had proved to not be much of a match, with Tomura somehow avoiding Lancelot's blade and using it as a launching platform, managing to grab onto Jaune's neck with one of his hands, only a single finger away from decapitating him.

Izuku's eyes flared a fluorescent, emerald green, emphasizing his anger at the hand covered man even further. He yelled at Tomura, "Get your hands off of my friend, asshole!"

Then, briefly, so quickly that Izuku thought he'd imagined it, he saw the opposing ocean and forest he'd seen in his meditation appear before him and come significantly closer together, the white sand that had once made up the beach beginning to fade from sight. But Izuku soon after came back to reality, launching himself at Tomura with a speed that he never knew he possessed, swinging Gale at just the right angle so as to avoid hitting Jaune, launching the gray-haired man away and nearly into a building.

Izuku huffed and asked Jaune if he was alright. The blonde nodded yes, but Crocea Mors' blade and shield had been significantly damaged from Tomura's semblance. They would have to be repaired. The fact that Tomura had the gall to destroy a family heirloom like that only made Izuku even more angry. He wouldn't get out unscathed.

 **(A/N: End Song)**

Tomura flipped and recovered his balance, only to stop dead in his tracks when he saw what had happened to Izuku's weapon, the green-haired boy too focused on Tomura to immediately notice. It was significantly shorter, now the exact length of a bastard sword while the blade itself was considerably more slender than its previous form, though it still maintained the same simple shape. The hilt had also altered its size, shortening itself to about a foot in length instead of the initial one and a half feet. It was the same weapon, it had simply... adjusted a few things.

Izuku then noticed the weight difference and looked at the weapon in his hands, his eyes immediately widening in shock as he thought, _Wait, what happened to Gale?! I thought it was a greatsword?!_

The weapon then hummed in disapproval when he thought the name Gale, the edge and runes glowing ever so slightly to accompany the sound. Did it not approve of the name Izuku had given it? And why was it even responding to his thoughts in the first place.

These were questions for a later time, as Tomura shouted, "Okay, Kurogiri! Grab as many people as you can and let's get the hell out of here!"

"Yes sir!" Kurogiri obeyed, setting up a hub portal as well as several mini portals across the battlefield, picking up several limp, unconscious bodies that hung about here and there, while also recalling the outliers that had somehow managed to remain standing.

Within a few hurried seconds, nearly every member of their vanguard had been recalled, with only the exceptions of Tomura, Kurogiri and Mr. Compress, the latter of which had fared surprisingly well against Shoto, using his unique sealing semblance to discontinue the boy's use of ice dust, instead only using melee combat to fend off his foe, and while many would say that fighting wasn't his forte, he was quite well versed in fencing.

Realizing that this would be their last chance to get at the League of Criminals for a considerable amount of time, Izuku tossed Gale *angry hum* into the air and, in a display of masterful skill and natural instinct, preformed a b twist flip and made a mid air jump spinning side kick, a loud crack emanating from the sole of his boot that launched Gale *angry hum* straight towards Tomura. But just as the tip of the blade nearly made contact with its intended target, Kurogiri's dark vapor enveloped him and dispersed immediately, leaving no trace of them as Gale *angry h- okay, you get the point* embedded itself into the concrete that they'd once occupied.

Izuku's legs then gave out, forcing him to drop to his knee and pant incessantly for the much-needed oxygen. Jaune and Yang began to approach the boy to try and help him to his feet, but before they could, something pale with large wings and bird like legs snatched him from the ground, its exposed brain, eyes, and otherwise humanoid frame giving away its type. It was a Nomu Delta, likely the only one of its kin to survive the earlier chaos, and was currently gaining altitude as it raced towards the horizon, eager to deliver its catch back to its master.

However, while he was significantly exhausted, Izuku was still conscious and knew that he'd been grabbed by something, what it was he didn't know, and was only concerning himself with getting out of its grasp and back to solid ground. With the last of the strength that he felt, he subconsciously reached towards Gale-

 _ **Tempest**_. It almost seemed to say the name with a sense of pride, though how a weapon could have a voice or give itself a name Izuku did not yet know, nor did he concern himself with the fact that the now renamed Tempest had shot towards him hilt-first and landed perfectly in his outstretched right hand. He then shifted his body around with what strength he had left and swung Tempest at the Nomu's legs, easily cleaving straight through the bone like warm butter and freeing him of the monster's grasp.

However, Izuku wasn't done with the Nomu yet, a brief flash of the forest from his meditation vision coming in front of his eyes before time seemingly stopped, the surrounding world turning to a gradient gray. Izuku then found a launchpad on the Nomu's mutilated foot, jumping off of it and swinging Tempest in a mad flurry of slashes oddly reminiscent of the final ultimate attack of his favorite character from an old RPG he liked to play as a child, finally jumping off of the Nomu's own body and calling out his final strike.

"TECHNIQUE STANCE ONE: OMNISLASH!"

He brought his blade down upon the Nomu's still exposed brain, slicing it in two as time returned to normal around him. Blood flooded out of its body like a storm, disintegrating as it seeped out of its veins and onto the blazer wearing huntsman in training, though that too disintegrated shortly after it touched his clothes or skin. Izuku was then presented with yet another problem.

He couldn't move. His arms were so sore he could barely keep his grip on Tempest, and his joints felt like they'd just been put through ten months of hell all over again. As if this wasn't enough, a stray Beowolf, an Alpha at that, had somehow managed to survive the earlier onslaught and was currently lunging for him with outstretched claws and bloody murder obvious within its eyes.

 _...crap._

However, by completely random chance, someone, he couldn't make out who, swooped him out of the air and stabbed the Alpha straight through the eye with a pocket knife, reaching its brain and killing it instantly. They landed only a second after that, a familiarly hostile voice saying, "You're not allowed to die yet, green hair. Not until you and the others I've deem worthy recreate this sham of a society!"

A loud squelch accompanied the punctuation of his sentence as he twisted the knife in the Alpha's brain, causing it to completely fade into ashes that scattered in the gust of wind that had picked up. Izuku tried lifting his head to get a glance at his savior, but this effort proved futile as his head thudded back to the ground, Tempest falling loose from his grasp in this same motion.

"What's happened here?" A loud, rather proud and spiteful sounding voice said without any real concern in his voice. His flame laced outfit and fiery beard gave away his identity almost immediately. Endeavor had come.

And Izuku's rescuer had taken hostile notice.

"Endeavor..." Stain uttered the name under his breath with unmasked disgust in his voice, his bandage mask falling from his face as he stared a hundred thousand daggers into Endeavor's frame. Izuku finally managed to lift his head towards the huntsman hunter, recognising the voice at last and rising to resist the killer, but was immediately stopped and became shocked beyond belief when he saw the man's unmasked face.

Stain's face had been scarred by corrosive acid, roughly healed skin covered most of the top third of his face. His nose, while it had appeared to simply be snake slits, had actually been completely chopped off, leaving a large hole in its place, with the only remaining hints to his faunus heritage being the slight, barely noticeable patches of snake scales near the top edge of his forehead that had somehow survived the acid burn. He was willing to go that far for a cause like this?

"The Ultimate phony Huntsman... and the greatest disgrace to this society..." Stain lifted his lone pocket knife in a backhand grip with his other arm guarding his chest. He continued, "Come at me, ya phonies! I'll take you all on! And I'll win too! I'll beat every last one of you into the ground!"

A blood red Aura seeped from every pore of Stain's body, sweeping out from him to every hunter present, causing all of them to freeze in place. None of them could move as Stain, with hate, fury, and murder in his glare, finished his statement. "THERE IS ONLY ONE HUNTSMAN WORTHY OF TAKING MY LIFE! ONLY ONE! ALL MIGHT IS THE ONLY PERSON I WILL PERMIT TO DEFEAT ME!"

No one present could move, and even if they could, nobody tried to struggle. Stain had made that big of an impact. In just a few short sentences, he'd brought an entire plaza filled with hunters to a shuddering, sudden stop. All of them were frightened.

But then, the Aura... faded. Stain, seemingly drained of energy, fell face first onto the concrete, knocked out cold. Izuku and co. later learned that Stain escaped police custody shortly before the battle against Tomujra and the League had ended, and that Stain's left lung had been pierced by one of his broken ribs that had managed to get loose from the medical wrappings. He was promptly arrested and sent to a high security prison in Atlas to face trial. This was merely a formality, however. Anyone who knew of this man also knew his inevitable fate once he had been caught. The huntsman hunter would never see the light of day again for as long as he drew breath.

As Izuku struggled to get to his feet, and found himself returning to the ground, he found a pair of hands being offered to him. He looked up to find they belonged to Shoto and Yang, both with happy, relieved smiles painted across their faces. Izuku too smiled as he took their hands and they yanked him off the ground, barely able to stand before he almost collapsed onto Yang. She was ready for this, however, and made sure to put the green haired boy's arm around her shoulder putting her right hand on his opposite shoulder to keep him upright.

Shoto called back to them, "I'll get Gale," causing the now shortened weapon to once more hum in disapproval. Shoto noticed this but paid it no mind as he walked over to the weapon and lifted it over his shoulder with ease.

At least, that's what should've happened, but it simply wouldn't budge for him. Try as he might, he could not lift Gale-

"Tempest," Izuku corrected his partner. "Its name is Tempest."

The blade shot out of Shoto's hand and into the air, zipping over to Izuku finding a comfortable home in his grip once more. Shoto and Yang's eyes widened at this sudden action, and seeing their distress, promised to explain it later. Well, try, he didn't really know how it worked either.

The green-haired boy then snapped Tempest onto his back as he, with Yang and Shoto's assistance, hobbled back to the center of the plaza, where everyone was currently meeting up.

"Holy crap, Izuku! That was freaking awesome!" Sun bellowed with pride as Kirishima continued, "Yeah man! I only saw the last of it, but what I did see was pretty damn cool!"

"Thanks for saving me back there, man. I owe you one." Jaune said without a hint of hesitation, his earnest thanks more truthful than it had ever been before.

"You did well, Izuku." Pyrrha said with an honest smile upon her face.

"Hey, c'mon Pyrrha. I think the rest of us did awesome too!" Nora said this as Ren, Blake, and Tokoyami nodded in agreement while Ashido, Velvet, and Neptune yelled their victory cries.

"Hey, speedy kid." Izuku turned his head to see the leader of Team CFVY, Coco Adel, approach him. She had fair skin, short dark-brown hair, and dark-brown eyes hidden by black aviator sunglasses. She had wavy locks on one side of her face, dyed with a gradient that started in dark brown and transitioned to caramel. Her clothes consisted of a long, cocoa-colored shirt with a dark brown waist cincher. She wore long, dark brown trousers with ribbons on the left side and a brown belt with bullets. Above it, she wore another cocoa-colored belt of bullets with a gold crosshairs buckle. What appeared to be a drape of black skirt hung on her right side. She also wore a pair of dark brown, high-heeled leather boots with buckles. Coco also donned a number of accessories, such a bracelet with black roses as decoration; which were accompanied by black gloves and necklaces. She also wore a beret of a darker brown gradient. Izuku saw her holding a black shoulder bag with gold studs, which was held by a bandolier strap; from what little he'd seen earlier, the bag was her weapon, transforming into an oversized black and gold minigun.

Her two other teammates were no less intimidating. Her partner, Fox, had dark skin and dark, messy copper hair that had a long fringe and a cowlick. He wore a sleeveless, muted orange zipper vest with black lining and a high collar, a pair of black jeans, and brown, laced shoes. His eyes appeared to be pure white, giving away the fact that he was more than likely blind. His arms were covered in scars, and he had a vertical scar on his lips. He also wore a pair of long black gloves and has several pouches attached to his belt. Attached to his arms were a pair of blades that ran the length of his forearm, with a copper body and black edges and tips.

The last one was the largest, and possibly most intimidating out of all of them, Yatsuhashi. He was tall and well built, with shaved-short black hair and tanned skin, wearing mostly pale-green and brown attire. He had a long short-sleeved robe, which he wore on one shoulder over a black muscle shirt. The robe was fastened at the waist by a leather armored belt with two pouches on it. He also wore brown pants and black-and-green boots. His left arm bears a five-layer sode which extended up past his shoulder. His weapon was affixed to his back with a padded brown strap slung over his shoulder. He also wore a pair of bracers as well as a pair of black gloves with green plates on the backs.

His attention was drawn once more to Coco when she smiled and said, "Nice job out there. You really kicked ass."

"Huh. You actually complemented someone. Never thought I'd 'see' the day." Fox said with a mischievous smile coming across his lips.

"But Fox, you are blind. How would you see that?" Yatsuhashi asked with an eyebrow in confusion, Coco facepalming while Fox knowingly chuckled.

"Well, it's nice to see that you're alright, Midoriya." Weiss said with a slight smile on her face.

"Yeah! I bet you'll be back in fighting shape in no time at all!" Ruby cheered with overenthusiastic hand motions.

"Just don't put yourself in that much danger again, alright? Damn near gave me heart attack..." Shoto muttered under his breath with a smile on his face, only giving a brief but stern glare to his father before his happiness returned.

Yang pressed her cheek next to Izuku's as she yelled, "We're more than ready for the tournament now! Bring it on, Remnant! We'll all kick your ass and then some!"

Izuku, overwhelmed with all the happiness surrounding him, couldn't help but beam back at his friends, laughing and cheering as the exhaustion seemingly drained from his body, while also blushing nearly to the point of overheat when he realized just how close Yang was. Even so, he laughed right along with them.

As all this happened, Toshinori, Aizawa and Torino stood on a rooftop overlooking the central plaza while Gooodwitch helped the Atlas personnel with containing Roman and Stain, the former of whom had been found unconscious a few minutes after the attack at the head of the bombing train.

"Well, it looks like everything's been handled. If you two don't mind, I'm gonna head back to Beacon and let Oz know the specifics." Aizawa said to the other two present with Toshinori replying, "Yeah, go ahead. We'll be just fine up here."

As Aizawa left, and Torino had confirmed that they were safely out of earshot, he asked Toshinori the big question. "Are you gonna tell him about-"

"No. Not yet. As much as I want to tell him, and believe me Torino, I really do want to tell him, he doesn't need that kind of bombshell bursting on him right now. Midoriya's got a tournament to train for, and talking about that will only impair his concentration. And besides, he looks really happy. I think he needs that right now, along with some proper relaxation."

"Happy? Yeah, he deserves that much. Relaxation? Hell no! We've got a tournament to win and two weeks to train for it! And you better damn well believe it'll be hell!"

"Hmm... well, he shouldn't have to suffer through that alone. Might I recommend a few teams to be brought under your wing?"

"Depends on the teams." Torino said as he and Toshinori walked away from the plaza, discussing potential candidates all the while.

 _(five minutes later, Vale Municipal Beach)_

Izuku felt a slight shudder make its way upwards through his spine, for some odd reason feeling as though he was going to live through hell within the next few days. Ignoring the oddly specific feeling, he refocused on the conversation between himself, Shoto and Yang while the rest of Team RWBY, Team CVFY and even a recently reawakened Bakugo with Tenya playing catch up. Team JNPR would've shared the moment as well, but they had to leave for the village they'd been assigned to sheriff only a few minutes after the attack. Shoto then asked the green haired boy, "How exactly did you learn that move you used back there? I couldn't even see you swing Gale-"*angry hum*"-Tempest. Sorry, force of habit." Shoto chuckled with slight amusement.

"Well, to be entirely honest, I kinda picked it up from an old RPG I used to play when I was younger. I thought it looked really cool and that it might be useful in future battles, but I really only focused on using that technique and I never managed to learn any of the other maneuvers he used." Izuku explained while he scratched the back of his neck in embarrassment.

"Huh, that's actually a really good idea. Maybe I should try to copy a couple of those moves that they use in all those beat em' ups..." Yang said as she held her hand under her chin in a thinker position.

"Well, I would suggest training for the tournament, but I think we already have that covered." Weiss said with an overconfident smirk on her face, Ruby nodding right along with her statement.

"Don't get do overconfident, shorty," a crackling, deep and oddly familiar sounding voice said as a walking cane could be heard crunching in the cold morning sand, helping him through and towards the currently resting teams. "That'll only lead to an early defeat by a more prepared team. You all need training."

This drew everyone's attention, including Izuku's, who immediately recognized the person who addressed them as Torino, who looked across the beach with a somber look on his face before Weiss stomped over to him and asked, "Excuse me?"

"Ah! Where are my manners. Many know me as Grand Torino, or just Torino for short."

Team RWBY and STK recognized the name as Izuku's assigned hunstman, and their eyes widened in minor shock.

"Yes, I know that I look fairly feeble, but I could probably still kick all of your asses from here to Mistral." Torino said with a cocky smirk on his face, attempting to goad one of them into responding, which, of course, he succeeded at.

"LIKE HELL YOU COULD EVEN TOUCH-" Bakugo began to curse at the man before Torino suddenly flew at the enraged direwolf faunus and planted his right foot straight into the boy's jaw, knocking him onto his back and kicking up loose grains of sand as he landed. He wasn't unconscious, but he was in much, much pain.

"You, Bakugo, need to work on that temper of yours. You two-" he pointed his cane at Tenya and Weiss, "-have got to learn to be less uptight and a bit more cooperative."

He continued this as he called out all of their names, causing almost everyone present to stand at attention with the exception of Bakugo, who was fuming with anger underneath Torino's heel. "Coco, Fox, you two need to start taking things like the Vytal festival a lot more seriously. Yatsuhashi, Velvet, communicate more with your teammates. They're your friends, they'll give you help you if you ask for it. Ruby, quit running ahead of your teammates. You're their leader, you better damn well start acting like it. Blake, you almost pass with flying colors across the board, with the exception of one particular category. You rely on your semblance far too much. Get out of that habit. If you grow too reliant on it, you might get yourself killed. Yang, you let your emotions cloud your mind far too often. Get a grip on them or you'll dig yourself a very early grave. And Izuku...

"Start getting used to your own power. You're gonna need it."

Coco then stepped forward and asked, "And why the hell are you telling us this, old man?"

"First of all!" He pointed his cane at Coco with blinding speeds, causing the beret wearing girl to step back in surprise. "Do not ever call me old man, even if I am one! You will either address me as Torino, Sir, or not at all!

"Secondly..." He placed the tip of his cane back into the sand, right next to Bakugo's left arm, the blonde direwolf faunus now actually paying attention to the very small yet badass man currently using his body as a platform, though he was still pissed about that last part. "...with permission from Ozpin and your shadowed hunters, I have been permitted to draft you all into my tutelage for the next two weeks under the condition of making you all the best damn fighting machines that I possibly can. I would've gotten Team JNPR along for the ride as well, but they're off to a village along the outskirts of Vale for the next week. They'll join the routine when they get back. For now, we'll get back to my apartment complex and get some rest. And tomorrow, well..."

"I hope you're ready to go through hell and high water, because you're gonna go through worse." He finished with an evil looking gleam in his eye and a similar grin on his teeth, a faint cackle echoing in the background, even though Torino had made no such noise.

 _(around the same time, somewhere in Vale, Dabi's POV)_

"All things considered, I'd have to say that today was a success." Cinder said in an overconfident tone, a corresponding smile crossing her luscious lips as naturally as breathing. Dabi had learned that this was a common expression for her, almost never showing the slightest hint of rage or worry, somehow always sure that things would play in her favor. He hated people like that. They reminded him too much of the people back at the lab.

Emerald and Mercury, ever the underlings, nodding along with her, though the former seemed far more uptight about it than the latter. Dabi, his hood and mask now removed, wanted to smack his palm into his face right then and there. How the hell could she consider this a success? They'd almost gotten uncovered, Oum dammit!

He managed to restrain himself so that he wouldn't facepalm, though a look of disagreement was obvious upon his face. Across from them were Tomura, Kurogiri, Himiko, who was only held back from the early morning shoppers by a surprisingly strong Neo, and a rather eccentric seeming man who was, in truth, a strategic genius, Mr. Compress, who'd shed his earlier black cloak to reveal a more... festive getup hidden beneath it. The man wore the same white mask with black markings that formed a festive smile that completely covered his face with the help of a black balaclava, making him the only anonymous member of the present group. Atop his head was a top hat with a red strip of fabric across the frame and a yellow feather tucked in on the side, while a large orange overcoat, black waistcoat and red undershirt donning an azure colored bolo tie covered his otherwise lithe and rather weak physical frame. On his hands were leather gloves that revealed nothing about him, and though his boots were black in color they served a similar purpose. In his left hand was his cane sword, Null, currently sheathed and held in a loose, casual grip at his side, though from what Dabi had seen he was fast enough to whip it out and stab someone at least three times before they even felt pain of any kind. He always did like to end fights quickly whenever it came down to that. Twice was back at base, likely trying to calm himself after the combat experience.

"I would not be so bold if I were you, Cinder." Tomura said in argument. "A lot of faunus died in those tunnels. If you don't find some way to explain this to your connections in the Fang, then my partner just got captured for nothing."

 **"I'm with Tomura on this one. Hate to be the party pooper, but that was my uncle who just got captured. We'd better get him back, or you and your disciples are going to get stabbed. A lot."** Neo typed out in agreement with Tomura, who'd been a lot like a second uncle to her. He might not have been there for her as much as Roman normally was, but he still cared for her. She managed to type the message while keeping Himiko at bay from the morning crowd with a single hand. She was good, Dabi would give the girl that much.

Mr. Compress continued from there. "Not to mention many of our new recruits that were injured in that battle, and a few of them who were recently captured right along with that crafty bugger. All so you could do... what, exactly? Cinder, I've tried to gain context on your views so that I might understand your... situation in a clearer light. However, you have done no such thing, despite my requests. As such, until we have established some form of trust, I do believe that Tomura will agree with me in saying that we will not allow any more of our troops of any rank to be sacrificed under your command. If I am not overstepping my boundaries..." He turned to Tomura, who shook his head 'yes' in agreement. "Then it's settled! So sorry about that, but if you give us what we want to know, we'll give you something that may be... beneficial for you to know. So? What do you say?"

Cinder simply looked at them with a plain expression before she simply held her right palm out loosely and ignited a small ball of flame that hovered above it, a similar looking lame encompassing her right eye. "Do you really think that you are in any position to make demands of me? If so, you are even more foolish than I first thought."

Dabi then received a nod from Tomura, who walked in front of Cinder and, in minor display of power, grabbed onto the woman's arm, snuffing out the fire in her palm and replacing it with his own, dark tinted ball of flame. The raven-haired woman snapped her hand out of Dabi's grasp almost immediately and rubbed her forearm and palm in what appeared to be a mixture of shock and pain. Fire had never harmed her before; not once. Hell, she actually walked through a few fires when she was younger just because it seemed fun. Never had it hurt her. Never burned her. Not once.

Yet his fire had done just that.

Rubbing her palm to ease the slowly fading pain, a scowl crossed her otherwise elegant features, obviously angry at Dabi for doing what he just did. Without changing his neutral expression once, he dropped his own hand and let the fire go out naturally, then stating, "You're not the only one who can play with fire. I do highly recommend you take their offer. It's the best you'll get from either of them Especially Tomura."

Cinder let out an annoyed huff and said, "I will do no such thing."

"Are you certain?" Mr. Compress asked in a more serious tone.

"I am."

"… very well. But there is one thing you should know anyways." Tomura spoke this time, with more than a little pride in his voice.

"And that would be?" Cinder asked in subtle curiosity.

"My master is going to arrive in Vale when the Fall starts. I believe you may have heard of him before, from your master, yes?"

"Spit it out, Shigaraki!" Cinder had almost entirely lost her patience, something that was rare with people but rather common with Tomura.

"All for One, the Symbol of Chaos."

Cinder's eyes widened with recognition. The name had great significance, especially when it came to the court of Salem. All for One, the antithesis of All Might, was a being who'd lived for so long and become so powerful that in his prime it was said that he could fight against the queen of darkness herself. And win without so much as breaking a sweat.

Not to mention the fact that Salem and All for One had recently become partners in mutual crime. That was bad for her, specifically because she had no idea who Tomura had worked for before this and that he knew just who she worked for.

However, after a few seconds, Cinder pulled herself together and continued. "Good. Then the rest of the plan should go off without a hitch."

"Are we really so sure about that?" Mercury said. "I don't think that the White Fang are going to listen to us anymore, not after the cave-in."

"No, they won't."

Everyone's attention, including Himiko's, turned to the new presence on the rooftop. He was tall, with red and brown hair that spikeed backward in a windswept way. While most of his hair was red, a portion of it in the back along with several other streaks were brown. A noticeable trait of his appearance was the mask he wore, which obscured his eyes and upper face. His faunus heritage appeared to be that of a bull, for he had two horns- one on each side of his head. His mask was whitish-tan with red, eastern Mistralian style horn-like symbols decorating the front, and two slits on each side, presumably to allow for vision. This was a redesigned version of the Grimm masks typically worn by most members of the White Fang. Adam wore a long-sleeved black trench coat with slit sleeves and more red designs and a white symbol on the left side. His trench coat was red on the inside with red flame-like accents at the bottom and his wilting rose emblem on the back over a white floral design. His trench coat was half-buttoned, exposing a red shirt with a black line running parallel to his collar under it. He also wore long black pants, black shoes with red soles and black gloves with more red emblems on their forehand, appearing to be a variant of the Omega letter from central Mistralian mythology (Ω). In his left hand he held Wilt and Blush, his favored pair of death dealing weaponry, a crimson red katana and a sheath that turned into a shotgun. He wore a black belt with white domino marks on it to complete the outfit. This was Adam Taurus.

"But they'll listen to me."

 **A/N: Well, here we are. Volume 2 is finally over. I'll be writing some training chapters to give Volume 3 the proper build up, and depending on how much time I need they may or may not be numerous.**

 **Also, I have a question for you guys. Which do you prefer, Bumblebee or Black Sun? *war and carnage ensue* Okay, okay, calm down! I know that this is one of the most argued over things in the RWBY community, but I really want to know. Leave your opinions (politely!) in the reviews. I'm open to different opinions since they can, and often do, give broader understanding from both sides of the argument. But first, my opinions on this rather... sensitive topic.**

 ***WARNING! WARNING! MILD RANT AHEAD!***

 **Was that really necessary?**

 ***… no. But it was funny!***

 **Haaa... okay, I'll give you that much.**

 **Ahem! Okay, where to begin with this... oh!**

 **I personally like both ships. *audible gasp* Yeah, I know it can be kinda unusual, and while I was a rather neutral person on the matter during Volume 2 to even the first two thirds of Volume 3... Adam happened. Yang lost her arm and Blake ran away.**

 **I can only imagine what kind of grudge Yang may still be holding against her since she basically abandoned her team, and more specifically her partner, when they needed her the most. And yeah, Blake did also go through something rather traumatic, seeing her best friend getting mutilated in front of her and all, and she went back home to get away from those problems. But Yang didn't and still doesn't know that. Sun thinks she'll forgive Blake, just like he did, but a friendship that gets shattered the way theirs was isn't so easily repaired, if it ever is at all. I do think that they'll at least become friends again, but even in the event that Yang fully trusts her again, making something more out of what's left behind isn't easy.**

 **Sun went after Blake because he knows that she wouldn't approve of him making sure that she was okay, and decided to do so secretly (although he could've approached the matter a lot better). The reason he did this was because Blake needed someone to watch her back, even if she thought otherwise. And if no one else was up to the task, he was gonna do it himself. One of my favorite quotes in all of RWBY actually came from Sun, "You think you're being selfless, but you're not. Yeah, that chameleon friend of yours got me pretty good. But I'd do it all again if it meant protecting you. And I can promise Yang would say the same. You can make your own choices, sure. But you don't get to make ours. When your friends fight for you, it's because we want to. So stop pushing us out. That hurts more than anything the bad guys could ever do to us." (Sun Wukong, RWBY Vol. 4, Taking Control) This highlights the problems with Blake's 'selfless' logic and why Sun and the rest of her friends are free to make decisions that protect the people they care about (I don't mean to suggest platonic or romantic care, just the fact that he cares about her), even if they hurt themselves in the process. No one, not even Blake, has the right to take that away from them.**

 **I'm not saying that Black Sun or Bumblebee will happen for sure, far from it. If they're going to actually put any of the characters from RWBY into relationships, it has to be natural, and saying that either of these two ships will happen based on circumstantial evidence makes them just that, circumstantial. But while it does seem like Black Sun is getting a lot more light shed on it in this Volume, that doesn't entirely eliminate the possibility of Bumblebee happening, even if it's a possibility far off in the future at this point in time.**

 **Also, please don't flood the review boxes with evidence of why either of these ships will or will not happen. I'd love to read your honest opinions, nothing more, nothing less. Wow, this rant went on way longer than I expected it too. Sorry if I seemed a bit biased towards Black Sun in any way.**

 **And finally, the profile:**

 **13-Mr. Compress**

 **Age: N/A**

 **BDay: N/A**

 **Handedness: Ambidextrous**

 **Race: N/A**

 **Hair: N/A**

 **Eyes: N/A**

 **Blood Type: N/A**

 **Height: 5'11"/180.34cm (plus top hat)**

 **Gender: M**

 **Semblance: Compress, allows Mr. Compress to shrink objects and even people into marbles. What is compressed and decompressed depends entirely on Mr. Compress' own Aura and/or physical stamina.**

 **Weapon: Null, a cane sword the can sometimes be used to utilize Mr. Compress' ability to neutralize dust and semblance attacks. He does not use this function often as he prefers to use his own hands for most procedures.**

 **Fighting Style: French Fencing**

 **Range: Close-Mid**

 **Next Chapter: Dec. 26th**

 **Seeya in the next one! And Merry Christmas, Happy Kwanzaa, Happy Haunakah, or whichever winter holiday you celebrate, I wish you all the best!**


	21. Living Weapons and Living Situations

**A/N: I pretty much wrote this chapter to clarify any of the concerns that you guys might have about Gale turning into Tempest. Also to set up a foreshadow an event for a future chapter. Thanks to all of you for the continued support, and enjoy!**

 **Review Responses:**

 **Glenn: Okay. I'm a bit biased towards Black Sun myself, but I can see why you'd like the ship. :)**

 **Disclaimer: I do not own RWBY or My Hero Academia. They belong to Monty Oum, Kohei Horikoshi, and their respective publishing companies. Please support the official releases.**

 **I do not own the cover image**

Chapter 21: Living Weapons and Living Situations

"Are you serious?"

"Entirely."

"But are you really su-"

"If I wasn't, we wouldn't even be having this discussion."

Izuku and Torino sat across from each other at the dining table, Tempest resting between them. There was a somber, slightly chilled morning air around them, and while the others were outside, donning their gym clothes, stretching their muscles and warming themselves up for the first of many daily workouts, the two currently sitting were discussing Izuku's weapon and just why it had changed so drastically. Well, Izuku was also wearing a set of workout clothes, as he'd planned to join the others before Torino pulled him aside. The outfit consisted of a simple white t-shirt with black shorts and black tennis shoes with nylon green soles. But I digress...

"How is it even possible to make a living weapon?" Izuku asked Torino, the boy wishing to ask so many more questions, though he held himself back so as to not overwhelm the old man and give his reason to smack him over the head with his cane. Seriously, he was way too good at using that thing.

"You tell me. These things were common back when the Grimm were first appearing and were practically wiping all of us off the map. Now they're so rare and powerful that selling one to the right person could probably buy you a mansion, maybe even a fiefdom." Torino said without a hint of sarcasm. He was entirely serious; these weapons were just that rare.

"But Mei said that making it was fairly simple. She just found the right Dust amounts to infuse into the weapon and she just... forged it." Izuku explained what he knew, which was to say, not very much.

"Wait, who made this for you?" Torino asked with a piqued interest.

"Mei Hatsume. Why?" Izuku tilted his head slightly in confusion.

Torino went into thought for several seconds before he stood from the table and said, "We're gonna have to pay that girl a visit. She's working with Maijima, right?"

"Yeah. They've been living together for a pretty long time." Izuku said as he too stood up, ready to follow through with whatever he had planned.

"Well, it's been awhile since I talked to him. He was a pretty good friend of Toshinori's too, and I haven't talked to him in a few years. Might as well see how well off he's been. Oh, and be sure to bring Tempest too." Torino walked towards the outside to begin instructing the others of what to do while the two were gone. Izuku, true to form, lifted Tempest from its resting place on the sturdy dining table, which had been expanded in order to accommodate for all the extra people that were staying with them now.

Time for some context! When everyone had gotten back from the exchange on the beach, they'd dragged themselves up to the rooms and crashed. Hard. Everybody was exhausted from the Breach, Izuku more so than any of them, proven by the fact that he couldn't even make it to any of the beds before he passed out. He'd briefly awoken later on to find that he'd been placed on a bed by someone; he didn't know who, but he was thankful that they moved him there. He would've been much more uncomfortable if they hadn't done that. Then he fell back asleep.

After they'd woken up, though they were still pretty groggy, they found that Torino had set up a fairly large table with a mountain of food on it. He'd proven himself to be a very good cook, even if he enjoyed microwaved sweets more than actual food, and everyone, and I do mean everyone, was so hungry that they ate until their stomachs were completely stuffed. They then proceeded to pass out about thirty minutes later.

Torino got everyone up fairly early, and assigned them to do the warmups they were doing right then, but had asked Izuku to stay behind so that they could discuss the situation with his weapon. And so, here he stood, staring at the weapon with hardly a clue as to what it even was anymore. Well, that was why they were going to visit Mei after all.

Izuku shook himself out of this daze and strapped Tempest's holster and the weapon itself onto his back, following Torino outside the apartment complex where he explained what they were going to do while they were away.

"I want all of you to complete five sets of twenty pushups, four sets of twenty sit-ups, and three sets of ten pull-ups. Then a half mile run. After that, take a rest for about fifteen minutes and do it over again. It should take you about an hour or two to get done." Torino explained, much to the dismay of the less physically inclined members of the present group. Specifically, Weiss.

"How are we supposed to do all of that within two hours?! That's impossible!" The aforementioned heiress exclaimed in disbelief.

Torino smirked evilly, as if he were expecting this. "I thought at least one of you would disagree with this. Just because I'm overly prepared, I've worked out a bit of a... system. For every time you object to the workout I've given you, you do another set of sit-ups. If this morning has been any consolation, you'll all have glistening abs in no time."

Ruby, Velvet, Fox, and Bakugo, the former two being just as nonphysically inclined as Weiss herself while one of the latter two was simply lazy and the last simply wanted less time devoted to strength training so that he could work more on fighting techniques; they all glared at her with an intense rage that wasn't matched by anyone else present. In fact, Yang looked a bit happier. Regardless, Weiss sweat dropped in fear and embarrassment, and almost tried to make a run for it before Torino shouted, "Well? What're ya waiting for?! Get movin'!"

The effect was almost instantaneous, every person present with the exceptions of Torino and Izuku getting down and doing pushups almost immediately. However, Izuku wasn't out of the loop either, as Torino explained, "Just cause we're going to Maijima's place doesn't mean you get to skip out on the workout. You're doing powerwalk there and back, ya hear me?"

"Got it!" Izuku said as they walked to Maijima's shop, the green haired boy doing the powerwalk all the way there.

 _(ten minutes later, Maijima's Gadgets and Guns)_

"Heya, Izuku!" Mei cheerily greeted the two as they entered the surprisingly untouched shop. Izuku thought there would be at least a little damage, considering all the Grimm, but the outer frame hardly had a scratch on it, and the interior was better than it had ever looked. Maybe that was due to the lack of weapons donning the shelves. Mei herself was currently digging through one of the many toolboxes she and Maijima had scattered around the shop

"Hi Mei!" Izuku responded with the same cheery tone before Torino jabbed his cane on the floor in front of the green-haired boy and said, "Air Chair."

"Yes sir!" Izuku then pulled out a chair (neither Mei or Torino thought to ask from where) and immediately began to hold himself just half an inch above the seat, almost vibrating while he did do.

"Is he gonna be okay?" Mei asked with a confused and slightly terrified look on her face.

"Yeah, he'll be just fine. We came over here to clarify some things about Tempest, and since everyone back at the complex is doing a pretty hardcore workout right about now, well... I couldn't have him slacking off, now could I?"

"O-oh. Okay." Mei said in clarification, still scared of the tiny old man.

 _Wait, did he say-_ her thoughts were interrupted when she heard her mentor's voice echo from within the workshop. "Mei, what are you doing? It doesn't take that long to get a multi-wrench-" Maijima emerged from the workshop, immediately freezing when he saw Torino, of all people, standing in the doorway with Izuku hovering over a chair with questionable origins. Seriously, where the hell did that thing come from?

"Long time, no see, Maijima." A friendly grin came across Torino's lips as he recognized the oversized helmet of a former friend. If the helmet weren't covering his face, they would've seen Maijima grinning ear to ear; he was that happy.

"Same to you, old man." The masked tinkerer quipped back, causing Torino to chuckle. That was rare. Very, very rare.

 _Wait, I thought he hated that nickname._ Izuku thought in confusion, still managing to maintain the air chair even with these new thoughts clouding his mind.

As if sensing the confusion, Torino turned and clarified for Izuku, "He was a part of Toshinori's team back when I taught at Beacon. They were the only ones who could get away with calling me that without getting detention. Or getting decimated in a sparring match. Or both."

"Torino, I am happy to see you, but why are you even here?" Maijima asked in a concerned tone.

"I was just about to get to that. Maijima, have you taught your apprentice about dust infusion?"

"Only the basics."

"Hmm... then it's as I thought." Torino turned to Izuku. "You can rest now."

Izuku slumped onto the chair before Torino continued, "Now, show us your weapon, kid." Izuku complied, taking Tempest off of his back and placed it across his lap, the blade shining in the morning sunlight, still as sharp as the day Mei had forged it. Speaking of-

"OH MY OUM, WHAT HAPPENED TO GALE?!" Mei yelled, Tempest humming in disapproval when Mei said its former name. Before she could process this fact, however, a chilling and rather terrifying voice emerged from her mentor's helmet.

"… Mei..."

She immediately froze in place, slowly but stiffly turning back to Maijima before she stuttered out, "Y-y-yeah?"

"Did you make that weapon with dust infusion?"

"Umm..." Mei nodded stiffly, not trusting her voice enough to give her adoptive father a proper answer.

"How much did you use?"

"… I balanced the dust out with the metal so that I could make it absorb kinetic energy." Mei hung her head low as she said this, fully expecting Maijima to be angry as an aggravated Alpha Beowolf, and rightly so. However, defying Mei's dark expectations, the exact opposite happened, as Maijima grasped the pink dreadlocked by the arms, lifted her up and cheerily explained, "Mei, you idiotic genius! You incredible, idiotic genius!"

Torino and Izuku looked at each other, the latter with far more confusion in his eyes than the former. Torino simply shrugged. He knew that Maijima had always been an excitable type when it came to weapon forging, but he expected the man to at least be a little mad.

"This could solve so many of our financial problems! Not only that, but we could finally move to Mistral like you always wanted to, and we'd live like weapon smith royalty!" Maijima said as he spun around with Mei still in his arms, the latter of whom had abandoned her previous nervous expression in exchange for a happier, more excited grin that now donned her lips, stretching from ear to ear and revealing her pearly white teeth.

"Wait, move to Mistral?" Torino asked in surprise, causing Maijima to stop mid spin and Mei to gain a look of recognition, turning her gaze back down to her mentor with a questioning look. He nodded to her before he put the dreadlock-wearing girl back on the ground and they explained Maijima's earlier comment to their guests.

"You see, I've wanted to go to Mistral for a while now. It's basically the trading capital of Remnant, and there are so many other masters and engineers we could work with. It's not like Vale is a bad kingdom or anything, there are plenty of good weapon smiths here. I just... going to Mistral has been my goal for a long time, and now that we've got the money together... well..."

Maijima finished for her. "We'll be leaving for Anima just before the Vytal Festival starts. We were going to tell you two, and Toshinori as well, but we just didn't really know how to bring it up. Sorry it took us this long."

Torino looked at the two with a stern gaze in his currently cold, yellow eyes before sighing at their predicament, his look turning warm once more before he said to the two, "Well, at least you told us at all. That has to count for something. Besides, that's not why we're here in the first place."

Mei and Maijima sighed in relief before the former of the two began to examine Tempest and the changes that had taken place. She twisted the pommel to switch it to scythe mode, and it did just that, the blade curving inwards before the handle extended. Unlike its previous iteration, however, it only had a single curve throughout the handle. Was Tempest accurate enough to change its own circuitry and frame? How the hell was that even possible?!

"Whooooooooooaaaa... so elegant..." Mei lightly ran her finger across the edge of the scythe, not even getting two inches before Tempest hummed causing her to accidentally cut her finger. She looked at the injured digit with fascination in her gaze, almost sighing out, "And razor sharp too... OH MY OUM THIS THING IS EVEN MORE AWESOME THAN BEFORE!" She suddenly shouted in pure excitement, clutching the weapon to her body like she was hugging the cutest puppy in all of existence. **(A/N: aka Zwei)**

It was at this moment the Maijima took the weapon from Mei's grasp before she could actually hurt herself with it and began to examine it himself. Being a professional with years more experience, he came to a more detailed conclusion than his bubbly apprentice. While she was indeed smart, and often too focused for her own good, she didn't quite yet have Maijima's natural knack for detecting small details. "Huh. It seems most of the circuitry's the same, just downscaled. The shift mechanism works a bit faster than before too." He then examined the actual blade. "The blade's a bit lighter as well. Hmm... hold on, let me try something." Maijima then shifted Tempest into its sword mode and placed it blade up on the countertop, asking Mei, "Could you grab some leaves for me?"

"Why would you need... wait, are we doing _that_ test?!" Mei exclaimed with an even more excited look on her face and a rather... bestial gleam in her eye? And did her reticules just start glow?

"Yes, yes we are." Maijima nodded as he punctuated his answer, seemingly oblivious to the strange glow in his apprentice's eyes. Mei then sped out of the workshop to find the nearest tree and bring in a ton of leaves. Literally.

"Wait, what test are you trying to do? And why does it involve... leaves of all things?" Torino asked while Izuku attentively listened, his eyes asking Maijima the exact same question that Torino had just voiced.

"It's a rumor about these living weapons from the old days. I wanted to see if it was true or not." Maijima began to explain while Torino held a deadpan expression on his face. "When the first living weapons were made, there was said to be ways to determine whether or not certain weapons were bloodthirsty. Usually, the techniques for this would vary from smith to smith, but there were two swordsmiths who proved this particular method I wanted to try out. It involved Masamune and his apprentice Muramasa."

"You actually believe that old wives tale?" Torino asked.

"Hey, Tempest is proof that these things still exist, that should be reason enough to test the legend out. But back to the story; Muramasa wanted to challenge his master to prove that he was the better weaponsmith. Masamune accepted his apprentice's challenge, and they forged two opposing blades, the Ten Thousand Cold Nights from Muramasa and the Tender Hands from Masamune. When the two placed a pair of leaves on the blades of their swords, Muramasa's sword would not allow the leaves to even rest on its blade, disintegrating them as soon as they even touched the edge. However, the leaves on Masamune's sword simply stayed, as if they had somehow found a balancing point. The difference between the two was that Muramasa's blade was bloodthirsty, and could only be used for murder and chaos. Masamune's blade, however, would not harm anything without a purpose, and was fit to be used by holy warriors and emp-"

"You're getting off track, Maijima." Torino reminded him.

"Right, sorry. Anyway, the point of the story is this; living weapons, under the wrong influences, can be born as, or eventually become, bloodthirsty, and therefore regarded as cursed. This is just a precaution. Granted, this story may not even be true, but we may as well check anyway." Maijima said as Torino sighed and rubbed his forehead, ridding himself of a growing migraine before suddenly-

"I'M BAAAACK!" Mei cheerily yelled when she kicked open the door to the shop, nearly off of its hinges, dragging a literal tree behind her with a rope. How was she able to do that? No one knew. Maybe it had something to do with the fact that she was able to lift that gigantic rocket launcher/club the other day...

But that question was soon erased from Izuku's mind as Maijima slapped the forehead section of his massive helmet in frustration at his apprentice's antics, yelling to his pink dreadlock donning apprentice, "Dammit, Mei! I told you to get some leaves, not a whole tree!"

Mei awkwardly scratched the back of her head as she apologized with a sheepish look painted onto her features, almost dropping the tree before catching it and hauling it over to the garage to use for later projects. On the upside, they wouldn't have to buy wood for a long time.

The pink haired girl then came back with an armful of leaves and placed them on the countertop, next to where Tempest was currently propped up. Maijima took a leaf from the pile and held it over the edge with a tender, two finger hold. He was about to release his hold on the stem when he suddenly stopped, staring at the green thing for several seconds before he pulled back and held it towards Izuku, saying, "This is your weapon, kid. It's been with you the longest, so you've probably had the most influence on it."

"Wait, I don't understand. Shouldn't Mei be doing this? She is the one who made Tempest." Izuku said, confused as to why he was being asked help perform this trial.

"While that is true, weapons like these learn considerably more from the people that wield them and can change accordingly. Tempest is your weapon. Let's see how you've influenced it." Maijima said, still holding the same leaf towards Izuku.

After only a moment more of hesitation, Izuku grabbed the leaf and held it betwixt his fingers, dangling it an inch above Tempest's edge for a full second before he let it float downwards, falling onto Tempest's blade not half a second later and staying there, completely still.

Maijima, Mei, and Torino looked at what had just happened. It wasn't anything all that large or explosive, but it meant one thing. Living weapons could be imprinted on.

That was both an exciting yet terrifying fact.

But Maijima simply shook his head and let the thought drift to the back of his mind as Izuku retrieved Tempest from its resting spot on the countertop. "Is there anything else we can do for you?"

"Actually, yeah," Izuku said. "How're the repairs on Crocea Mors coming along?"

"Fairly well. It should be finished by the end of the week. Are you sure I can't just add a few mods? Maybe a rifle on the blade-"

"Mei, that's not for me to decide. You heard Jaune, he just wants it back exactly the way it was." Izuku said with finality in his voice, reminding Mei of the promise she'd made to the blonde knight before he'd left with the rest of Team JNPR for the frontier village they'd been assigned to.

"Okay." Mei relented with a bit of disappointment in her gaze.

Izuku, wanting to cheer her up a bit, said, "Well... that doesn't mean you can't improve what he's already got..."

 _That_ got the fire back into Mei's eyes very quickly, speeding off and into the workshop as she yelled, "I'll get to work right away!" Back to Izuku, various mechanical whirs and loud, metallic clangs emerging as she continued her work on the sword/shield combo.

"Are you sure the boy's gonna be alright without his weapons? It's fairly dangerous, where he's going." Maijima asked with a trace of concern in his tone.

"I know he'll be fine. He said that he and Lancelot had to work on their coordination anyways."

"C'mon, Izuku! Can't leave the others waiting forever!" Torino called to his trainee. Izuku then dashed over to him and they began to walk back to the apartment with Izuku now walking on his hands. Apparently, Torino didn't think that the power walk was hard enough for him.

 _(Vale Central Park, Yang's POV)_

"So, when you gonna ask the guy out?"

Yang suddenly made a spit take with the water she'd been drinking in shock at Coco's bluntness, briefly coughing and regaining her breath before she attempted to retort at the brown colored girl's comment. Keyword: attempted.

"I... he... we just... it's complicated, alright?" was all that she managed to say to the brown colored second year, who smirked as she pulled her sunglasses a bit lower, revealing her eyes and brow creased into a 'really?' expression. Other than her signature accessory, Coco herself was wearing a slim, form hugging, chocolate colored tank top, black workout pants with a white stripe running down the left leg, and brown tennis shoes with black soles.

Yang had donned a different, though slightly similar outfit; a bright yellow sports bra with black lining that bared most of her lower stomach with her emblem emblazoned onto the left breast in black, black workout short shorts and yellow tennis shoes with black soles. She and Coco had finished the exercise that Torino had given them about ten minutes ago, and had made small talk on a bench they'd found in the Vale Central Park for the most part. And then the subject of Yang's relationship with Izuku came up about thirty seconds ago. You can imagine what happened from there.

Coco then continued. "Maybe, but I don't think it's really as complicated as you're making it out to be. I mean, you guys have known each other for... how long now?"

"About seven months or so."

"Seven months. I don't exactly see what the problem is with you telling him at this point." Coco stated as if it were the most obvious thing in the world.

"That's not it, dammit!" Yang exclaimed before she sighed and rubbed her forehead, further explaining, "Look, I... I like him. I like him a lot more than I do anyone else, with the exception of my sister. But I don't know if he even feels the same way. I want to tell him, but I don't want to ruin what we've already got."

Coco just looked at her with a flat expression before she removed her sunglasses and placed them to her right before she turned back to the blonde brawler and began a rather heartfelt speech. "Look, I get that these kinds of things are hard to deal with; believe me, I know all about it. I used to feel the same way you do now, way back when I started getting a crush on Fox."

"Wait, you two are-"

"Yep, we're dating. Been a thing for almost a year now. But that's not the point; what I'm trying to say is that if you keep on waiting, he might not wait up for you. It's okay to try and take things at your own pace, I get that, but if you take too long they could find someone else. It's why I worked up the courage to ask Fox to the Homecoming Dance last year."

"We have a Homecoming?"

"Yeah, I was surprised too. What surprised me more was that Fox actually said yes when I asked. Hmm... tell you what, set a date-"

"W-w-wait, what?!"

"No, not that kind of date, I mean decide the absolute day that you have to tell him about how you feel. It worked out for me and Fox, so it might work with you. How about... after the Vytal Festival ends, at the latest." Coco said as she hooked one of her arms over the back of the bench with a hint of a smirk on her face.

"But what if-"

"No 'what ifs.' That's only going to hinder you. As long as you at least ask him honestly and with your heart... well, at least no one can say that you didn't try." Coco finished as she put her sunglasses back on.

Yang stayed silent for several moments, staring straight towards a certain spot in the lake about a hundred feet across from them, sighing and relenting, "Okay."

"Hmm?"

"After the Vytal Festival. I'll tell him." Yang said with finality in her voice and determination in her eyes.

Coco smirked at this, putting her arm around the blonde's shoulder as she said, "There ya go! Now you just gotta stick to it!"

"What does that mean?"

"It means I'm gonna help you out with confessing!"

"But-"

"No buts! To work!" Coco grabbed Yang by the arm and sped off towards the apartment building, just as Torino and Izuku were coming back from... wherever they went.

 _(6:26 pm, Maijima Gadgets and Guns, Bakugo's POV)_

Bakugo pulled the hood of his parka off of his head, allowing his ears to finally stretch as he looked up at the sign for the weapon shop Izuku had briefly mentioned when he and Torino had gotten back. Apparently, somebody here had made Tempest for him, and the ashen blonde direwolf needed a decent replacement for his gauntlets after he... well, let's not mince words, he blew them to shreds.

He was really hoping that his mom wouldn't find out about that last part for at least a while.

Bakugo shrugged off his hesitation and entered into the shop, the fluorescent lights causing him to slightly squint before his gaze fell on a girl in a black tank top with goggles in her forehead that held her pink, chin-length dreadlocks from hanging in front of her face. She then glanced at him, greeting him with a cheery smile and infectious voice. "Welcome to Maijima Gadgets and Guns; how can I help you?"

"Is the person that made Tempest here?" Bakugo asked with a flat tone.

Mei cautiously answered the question, "You're looking at her. Why do you ask?"

Bakugo's eyes briefly widened in shock. "Huh. You must be a damn good weaponsmith. Especially considering your... relative experience."

"Was that a jab at my age?"

"Take it as you will."

Her cheeks puffed as her lips creased into an adorable frown, huffing, "Well, if that's all you're here for, then please leave ASAP."

"It's not." Bakugo pulled a rolled-up blueprint from his parka and rolled it onto the countertop, causing Mei to immediately gain interest. It was a simple design, but if the technical notes were anything to go by, it would be absolutely devastating to anyone on the wrong end of it.

"Interesting design. You have my attention." Mei said as she leaned back from the countertop with a hand on her chin in a thinker position. "You selling or requesting?"

"Requesting. When's the soonest you can finish this?" Bakugo pointed to his blueprint for emphasis.

"Hmm... about two days or so."

"How much do I owe you?" Bakugo asked as he pulled out his dark leather wallet.

"Just the blueprint and fifty lien down. I'll calculate the rest once I'm done."

Bakugo put the requested amount on the countertop and began to leave, but stopped when Mei asked, "Whose name should I put this under?"

The direwolf faunus turned and answered, "Katsuki Bakugo," before walking out of the shop once more, leaving a minorly confused Mei in his wake.

 **A/N: Aaaaand that's a wrap! Hey guys! I'm gonna be taking a bit of a break since it's the nondescript holiday season and all, so this'll the last chapter of the year. I'll be back relatively soon after that though!**

 **Next Chapter: Jan 12th**

 **Seeya in the next one!**


	22. Building Antics

**A/N: Holy crap guys. The latest episodes were just... holy f*cking sh*t. I actually thought Weiss was gonna get off worse than she did. Thank god Jaune got his canon semblance when he did, even if it was a bit predictable at that point. Now, am I going to be altering his semblance to fit in with the canon of the show? No, but I will give an explanation as to why he can heal people. Actually, it might not even be his semblance at all; maybe it's a form of Aura manipulation. Oh well, I guess we'll find out later.**

 **Review Responses:**

 **fernandamichelleraya: I'm glad you liked them! I plan on using the different perspectives more, especially in the future, so hold on tight! Also, sorry I didn't message you like I normally do, didn't have a whole lot of spare time (spent most of it with family).**

 **awesomerebel55: It'll probably either be really damn funny or unspeakably tense.**

 **Disclaimer: I do not own RWBY or My Hero Academia. They belong to Monty Oum, Kohei Horikoshi, and their respective publishing companies. Please support the official releases.**

 **I do not own the cover image**

Chapter 22: Building Antics

"Alright! Now that you've all finished the basic workouts that I laid out for you..." Torino scanned the room, finding that everyone was wearing an expression of fear, excitement, or cautiousness, at times a combination of the three, as he continued, "… and I have devised one more exercise that will help all of us, in some way. For those of you who are less physically inclined than your peers, you'll be happy to know that this will be the last of the endurance exercises I have planned."

Weiss, Ruby, and Velvet in particular beamed at the news, while Fox casually smirked at the fact that he wouldn't have to work very hard for much longer. Of course, Shoto, Yang, and Tenya looked a bit disappointed, as did Yatsuhashi, as if they were expecting a bit more from the monochrome wearing man currently standing above them on a tree stump.

"You'll also be horrified to know that it'll also be the hardest thing you're going to do here," Torino said with an evil smirk on his face, causing everyone who'd either been ecstatic or disappointed to switch moods. Izuku, through it all, was somewhere in between all three listed emotions, along with Coco and a currently stoic Bakugo. Despite this, Torino continued, "Now, I know what you're all thinking, what could possibly be more difficult than anything I've already had you do? Well, I thought the same thing myself all day yesterday. And then it hit me...

"What about repairing the building?" This caused everyone to begin sweating in fear, even the ones who were once happy for the challenge were now rethinking their life choices up until that point. "I mean, why didn't I think of that earlier? It'll give you a lesson in cooperation, strength training, and give you a much-needed lesson in architecture!"

Weiss then raised her hand. "What is it, shorty?"

One of the veins in Weiss' forehead visibly bulged to emphasize her annoyance, but she kept her stoic face on and answered, "Where are we going to get the supplies for this? I don't know your financial situation, but I don't think it's enough to cover refurbishing the entire building. And even then, how are we going to fix this place in a day?"

It was at that moment that a loud, echoing thud rang out from behind them. The group then turned to see Mei and Maijima, the former with a hard hat, with a few truckloads of building material just behind them and armfuls of tools, though Mei also carried a large, steel grey briefcase with a crimson red direwolf emblazoned on either side of it. Wait, wasn't that-

"You rang?" Maijima asked with sarcasm tinging his voice. Mei simply looked over the building with an analytical gaze for a few seconds, putting her tools and the briefcase down before she stated as incredibly blunt as someone could say... well, damn near anything, "How has this place not collapsed in on itself yet? You said this place was in poor condition, but this is... well, it's something else."

"What's that supposed to mean?" Toshinori visibly steaming over Mei's comment. The pink dreadlocked girl shifted her eyes towards the monochrome wearing man and continued, "This is going to take a lot more than a day to fix, even with all the extra hands."

"Don't be so worrisome, Mei. I'm sure we can get at least half it done before today ends." Maijima then addressed the group as a whole. "Okay, how many of you have worked with at least basic power tools before?"

Yang, Coco, Fox, and surprisingly Bakugo, all raised their hands. A confused Velvet shot her leader a disbelieving look, to which the beret-wearing girl replied, "I've used a couple power tools to adjust some of the specifics on Cream and Sugar. It kinda became a habit of mine, so I think I'm fairly competent with them."

"Cream and Sugar?" Mei and Ruby asked with interested looks on their faces, though they both had some suspicions as to what the aviator wearing huntress was referring to.

"It's the name of my minigun." She answered. The chocolate colored girl then immediately regretted answering this question as the two began to bombard her with questions about specifics, although she managed to hear maybe twenty or so questions before the both became rapid fire, blended dumps of pure enthusiasm.

"Alright!" Maijima then broke the two weapon nuts from their near never-ending tirade of questions to Coco and properly addressing the rest of the awaiting group. "The rest of you are gonna be helping out with the heavy lifting. Be careful with this stuff though; if you drop any of it you could shatter your Aura if you're lucky or break a bone if you're not."

Torino the spoke up once more with an evil grin returning to his face. "And remember, absolutely no Semblances from any one of you. This doubles as an endurance exercise, so be sure to-"

"Work until we drop. Trust us, we know." Almost everyone present, including the normally sincere and well-meaning Ruby, Velvet, Tenya, and Izuku, said with extreme sarcasm in their tones.

"That's not what I was going to say." The group's eyebrows then raised in confusion, and Torino continued, "Watch each other's back and help your group members when they need it. This might be primarily an endurance exercise, but it is also a test of two very important factors that will often come into play during your time as hunters."

"And those would be?" Weiss asked with genuine confusion on her face.

Silence reigned supreme for several slow seconds before it was finally broken when Torino responded, "Teamwork and your willingness to cooperate with each other. That's what'll get this building fixed. Now stop gapping and get to work!"

And they did. Yang and the others Maijima previously mentioned began grabbing the power tool cases with the help of Mei, moving them into the top part of the building while the rest of the group began to help Maijima unload the supplies with a long day of repairs ahead of them.

 _(one hour later, Yang's POV)_

"Hey, Yang, pass me that socket wrench, would ya?" Coco said as she hung from the ceiling in an inverted position with Yatsuhashi and Shoto holding up the ceiling's supporting beam with their raw strength alone. Despite his physical appearance, Shoto was actually very strong. Yang dug around in the bright red toolbox, eventually finding the damn thing and casually tossing it over her shoulder with practiced ease, something she used to do with her father while they worked on building Bumblebee. She might have been a natural mechanic, but that didn't mean she knew everything about motorcycles. Moving on...

Coco snatched the socket wrench out of the air, twirling it around between her fingers before gripping it gingerly and tightening the final few screws of the beam into place, releasing her leg grip on the ceiling and flipping down to the ground with practiced ease of mobility. For a heavy gunner, Coco was surprisingly acrobatic when she had to be.

With a thumbs up from the aforementioned huntress, the Yatsu and Shoto released their grip on the beam and, upon rechecking all the bolts, confirmed its safety. The blonde brawler then waved down to the others to send the next beam up. Izuku, Blake, Tenya, and Weiss were currently trying to do just that, and though the latter seemed to struggle with actually helping to lift the beam, though she tried her best. Either way, Yatsu and Shoto took the beam off their hands and took it over to the next beam that was marked for replacement.

"So, when are you gonna-"

"I'm not going to plan it out meticulously, Coco. Just... leave it where it is for now, okay?"

She relented as Yang and Yatsu began to remove the marked pillar, repeating the earlier process as the hours they worked became an afterthought.

 _(three hours later, Bakugo's POV)_

The whirring of the bolt headed power drill drowned out Bakugo's raging thoughts as he focused on the task at hand: securing the shiny grey reinforcement plating of the basement. He didn't know why Torino wanted to do this, nor did he much care. Although he did note the fact that it was shaped to be a fighting ring in some way. Just what the hell was that old geezer planning?

"Hey, Bakugo!" The aforementioned direwolf faunus stopped what he was doing and turned to see who had addressed him, finding Mei standing at the entrance with the same briefcase the she held under her arm earlier that day. "Ya mind?"

Bakugo sighed, securing the plate into place before walking over to the pink haired girl and asking, "It's finished?"

Mei, without another work, placed the briefcase on the ground and, with a bit of dramatic flair, slowly opened the case and revealed the finished weapon. It was fucking beautiful, as if it had been lifted right off of his blueprint.

"This'll do nicely. I can't wait to soak these in Grimm blood." Bakugo said as, slowly but surely, a bestial grin spread across his entire face. Despite the context of this action though, the blonde direwolf faunus was indeed very happy.

"Glad you like it. Although I wouldn't do that if I were you. It wouldn't be all that easy, but literally drenching these babies in blood will probably damage the circuitry. Also-" Mei shoved her hand in Bakugo's face, smiling as she continued, "-you owe me a hundred lien. Cough it up."

"Dammit!" Bakugo yelled in an annoyed huff, pulling out his wallet and digging through it to remove the requested amount, all while Mei held that same, prideful smirk plastered on her face.

 _(two hours later, Izuku's POV)_

"Okay, these should be enough to start working on the third floor, and then we've got the sign and roof to work on. With any luck, we should be done by the end of the day." Maijima said as he finalized the plans for the aforementioned parts of the building, ironically just as Bakugo, Fox and Velvet had finished up the basement. He and the others stood just outside the building, a fold up table placed just in front of him with the aforementioned plans placed on it.

Izuku then remembered a certain question from quite a few months ago about Maijima's helmet that he'd never posed to the weaponsmith. He didn't really know why that particular topic popped into his mind, but the green-haired boy knew that if he didn't the question would probably bug him for a long while. Plus, he was fairly curious about it.

The others soon filed into the building, though Yang and Bakugo lingered before they too joined the others, the former with a touch of concern in her gaze while the latter was merely... observing. Huh. Who knew.

Maijima turned and addressed the green haired boy before he could muster up the guts to ask, "What's up, Midoriya? Something on your mind?"

Briefly startled, Izuku shook his head to snap himself out of his daze, then asking the daunting question, though hesitantly, "A-actually, yeah. I was wondering... why do you wear that helmet all the time?"

The question made Maijima visibly flinch, clearly uncomfortable with what Izuku had just asked. Noticing this and immediately regretting his decision, Izuku sputtered out, "I-I-I'm sorry, I shouldn't have asked that."

"No, it's okay. I... thought that you'd ask eventually, but not quite this soon." Maijima said as he breathed deeply and told Izuku, "Don't tell this to anyone else, alright? Especially not Mei. The only other people who know this story are Toshinori, Torino, and the rest of my old team, for good reason. If she found out about this now, I don't know how it'll affect her. Promise me."

Izuku, not trusting himself to speak in this surprisingly tense situation, gave a stiff but resolved nod. Satisfied with his answer, Maijima rolled up the plans and sat on the edge of the table. He patted the spot next to him, saying, "You're gonna want to sit down for this. It's a pretty long story."

Izuku carefully sat down next to him as Maijima began his story. "It was about five years ago, back when the Fang was still getting used to its new leader. There was a certain sect called the 'Creed of the Serpent.' As you've probably guessed by the name, they were primarily made up of snake faunus' and a few other serpentesque reptiles. Anyways, they were a well-rounded group, taking part in anything from starting riots to stealing dust... even taking part in assassinations. One time, they took over a rather large railway station in Atlas. Even though our recently reassembled team had a plan from the start, the group had managed to capture one of our teammates. I don't know how the hell they managed to pull it off, but they did. Nemuri Kayama was her name, although most of the public knew her as Midnight."

 _Wait, is he-_

"Yeah, I'm talking about _that_ incident. I take it you're familiar with Serpent Saw?"

"Well, I don't know all that much about, but I do know that he was COTS's leader, and that he gave All Might quite a hard fight."

"Good, you know the basics. As to why I... went for the bait, it was because... well, I was kinda in love with her." Maijima scratched the back of his head in embarrassment. Izuku could've sworn that he saw a blush bleed through his helmet. "Yeah, I know, it sounds cliché as all hell, but I really was. Still kinda am. But that's not the point; I was so blinded by the fact they'd taken her hostage that I didn't even think and charged right into what I knew was a trap, despite my teammate's protests. If I had thought logically, I probably would've gone with the plan that Toshinori and Ecto came up with to get Nemuri back safely. But I screwed up. Badly.

"I only managed to take down about half of their grunts before the elites showed up and decimated me. I was strong, but I was still mainly the engineer on the team, and my Semblance was made for scouting and stealth. It was pretty ironic, really. A groundhog faunus with echolocation. Heh. It was goddamn hilarious."

"You're a faunus?"

"Yeah, but unlike the others in my family, I was born with digger claws instead of the nose or ears. I was also born blind, like most of the other groundhogs, so it was a bit overwhelming when I got my semblance. Moving on; I was brought to the same place Nemuri had been taken, straight to Serpent Saw. I don't like saying this about anyone, but that man's sense of depravity and the amount of hatred he held for humans were both so great that I'm fairly sure whatever redeeming qualities he may have had were swept away by all the negatives he displayed at that place. He went on a hate speech about humanity and their preternatural nature towards the concept of 'shoot first, talk never,' despite being an incredibly oblivious hypocrite. He said that he was 'disappointed' in me, that I would rush in so blindly to save 'a human, of all living things.' He might have been painting himself as a holy man, or some bullshit symbol for equilateral justice, but in reality, he was simply a complete psychopath with no chance at any kind of redemption. Then he got bored of waiting for the others to show up and took his chainsaw to my face." Maijima stroked the front part of his helmet gingerly, as if the wound, despite long since healing, was still fresh and overflowing with unspeakable pain. After a few seconds of uncomfortable silence, he let his hand drop to his side once more and continued, "That was also about the same time Toshinori and Ecto broke in. I didn't hear much of what happened next, but I know that Toshinori left Serpent Saw without most of his limbs. Then something... really odd happened. According to the others, I was on the verge of dying; it was a miracle I'd survived as long as I did, but then... Toshinori healed me. Even though it left a scar that did pretty much mar my face permanently, he saved my life.

"And stranger still, I don't even know how this was possible; he cured my inborn blindness. I could see. But after that, my semblance... it was gone. It couldn't work if I could see properly, like everyone else. Toshinori never forgave himself for that, and, if our conversation at the shop was anything to go by, everyone else might still blame themselves as well. After my semblance was shot, I retired from the huntsman's life and started my workshop. I found Mei a few months later, and the rest is history.

"So yeah, really long story. I'm... I'm honestly glad you asked. Feels like I've had a weight lifted off my shoulders." Maijima hopped off of the table and gestured towards the building, "Well, we ought to get going now. Can't keep the others much longer, now can we?"

Izuku too hopped off the fold up table, though as he began to walk to the building he asked, "How did All Might heal you? I thought you needed something like a healing semblance to do that without Aura Regulation Machines."

Maijima sighed heavily before he answered Izuku's question. "Kid, that's something you're gonna have to ask Toshinori about. I might be experienced, but I don't know everything."

Maijima the hurried inside with Izuku following shortly thereafter, the sound of power tools and banging metals making white noise while he lost himself in thought.

 _(five minutes later, Shoto's POV)_

"I wish Momo were here. If she were this would probably be going a lot faster," the half and half leader overhead the white-haired heiress sigh under her breath as they and the others lifted the first beam up via pulley system they'd set up just a minute prior.

"Wait, you know Momo? As in Momo Yaoyorozu?" Shoto asked with a piqued interest as they continued to pull on the rope, assisted by Yatsu, Blake, Tenya, Mei, and Fox. Everyone else was upstairs assisting with the installation, as they'd learned their lesson previously from when a beam had nearly fallen on the aforementioned heiress.

"Yes. Why do you ask?" Weiss asked as they lifted the beam to its destination.

"Well, we're... erm... I have no idea how to explain this to-"

"You're dating, right?" She said with a smirk plastered onto her normally stoic face, causing Shoto to nearly lose his grip on the rope as the above team hauled the beam inside and began the installation.

"How did you know?" Shoto asked as then others slowly lowered the pulley to the ground, though they ignored their conversation and subconsciously labeled it white noise.

"She talks about you a lot. I didn't bring it up with you because... well, we're not all that close and it probably would've been awkward if that was the first thing I said to you." Weiss scratched the back of her head in minor embarrassment.

"I see." Shoto let out a breath he didn't know he was holding.

"I also know about the... other aspect of your relationship." _That_ got Shoto to tense up once more, bracing himself for a lecture on how their relationship had actually started, but was pleasantly surprised to find that she did no such thing. "I'm not going to pretend to understand how you two fell for each other in that context, though I do have one request.

"Be true to her. She's one of the only friends I've ever had; I actually might not have been able to come to Beacon if it weren't for her support. So...

"If you happen to commit adultery, I'll be sure to castrate you as painfully as possible." Weiss said with an evil gleam in her eye, though Shoto remained stone-faced as he answered her threat, "You've got no need to worry about that. I'd probably do that to myself if I committed... well, anything of that sort."

Weiss, satisfied with the answer, gave a kind smile and said, "Good. Now, let's get back to work before the others start yelling at us."

 _(two hours later, Tenya's POV)_

Tenya was completely baffled. In the span of only a day, they'd managed to take the entirety of the once shambled, broken down complex, and turn it into what could be considered a five-star hotel.

"Is no one else going to question how we managed to fix this place in a day?" Weiss asked the others as they gazed at the building in question.

The nearly unanimous and synched response was simply, "Don't question it."

"But-" Tenya tried to object when the same people said in sync once more, "Seriously, don't."

A short while later, everyone began to file inside the complex, though Tenya pulled his partner aside, saying, "I've got something for you," as he pulled out his wallet and, after finding the hidden pocket, pulled out the two golden cards marked **F** **AVOR** in black.

"The hell is this thing?" Bakugo bluntly asked as he inspected the item rather... intensely.

"It's a guaranteed favor from Thoth. And before you ask, yes, I do mean _that_ Thoth. Don't tell anyone about this, got it?" Tenya asked, accompanied by a pleading look that never often graced his features.

Bakugo, placing the card in his, said, "I know, I know. There would be way too many questions if we told them. But you better damn well tell me how the hell you got these."

"Later. For now, let's just help with dinner." With that, the two finally stepped inside, laughter and comedic banter emerging from within for most of the early evening.

 **A/N: We're back in business baby! I know this chapter probably raised some questions. If you have any, feel free to ask them in the reviews! Feel free to make suggestions or criticisms as well. I'm always open to learning.**

 **There isn't a profile this time, sorry. I'll be sure to update Bakugo's at the end of the next. Well, after the fight scene, of course.**

 **Next Chapter: Jan. 26th**

 **Seeya in the next one!**


	23. Izuku vs Bakugo: Rematch

**A/N: Does anyone else have a bunch of Hamilton songs stuck in their heads? I do, for some odd reason. And I also really want to play D &D. Like, I really, really want to play D&D right now. Oh well, enough of me rambling and crap. LET'S FIGHT! Enjoy the Chapter!**

 **Review Responses:**

 **dandyrr0403: Oh, you have no idea how bad he can get. I'd tell you how All Might healed Maijima, but that would be major spoilers. And yeah, the guy's been through hell and come back fighting. That takes a lot. I'll be sure to keep being awesome right along with you! Thank you for the support! Enjoy!**

 **Disclaimer: I do not own RWBY or My Hero Academia. They belong to Monty Oum, Kohei Horikoshi, and their respective publishing companies. Please support the official releases.**

 **I do not own the cover image**

Chapter 23: Izuku vs Bakugo: Rematch

"My Oum, it's fucking beautiful!" Torino gushed at the sight of the completed fighting ring. It was only about half the size of the sparring ring at Beacon, and practically made from all the plating Bakugo, Fox and Velvet had to bolt in the other day. Still, it would serve its purpose, and currently, that purpose was to pit certain pairs against each other. But the teams certainly didn't know that. Yet. Moving on...

"We get it old man-" Bakugo was whacked on the crown of his head almost immediately after he uttered this, Torino saying something along the lines of 'shut up' or 'don't call me old man' before the aforementioned direwolf faunus continued, somehow unphased by the blow to his head, "-you like the place. Care to explain what we're all doing down here now?"

Torino's smile grew ever still. "Isn't it obvious? I'm gonna have you all fight each other to gauge your combat abilities."

"Wouldn't that be pointless though? I thought you had access to our sparring records or something." Yang asked with a raised eyebrow.

"Yes, I do. However, while that is an option, it's not as relevant now as it may have been then. I prefer to make my own assessments with more valid data. That and this method is just way more fun!" Torino's smile never left his face the entire time, something that sent a chill up the spine of every trainee present, though Bakugo simply wrote it off as a slight chill.

"Now then, onto the combat pairs. I've already chosen them for you, so don't complain if you're up against someone you don't want to fight. You fight who you fight and that's the end of it." Torino then named off the matches in reverse order.

"6: Fox vs Weiss; 5: Velvet vs Shoto; 4: Yang vs Tenya; 3: Ruby vs Yatsuhashi; 2: Coco vs Blake. And, for our first round:

"Izuku vs Bakugo."

There was a sudden, eerie silence that fell upon the room as the monochrome colored huntsman finished that sentence. Things between the two teammates had been relatively tense since the Breach incident, it was why they'd practically been avoiding each other like the plague. The others had noticed this but thought that their interference would likely cause more harm than good. It was practically a barrel of gunpowder waiting to go off, and Torino had just lit the fuse.

The two soon to be combatants looked at each other properly for the first time in days. Underneath their respective feral and nervous expressions, their eyes held a different emotion entirely. They were excited. They wanted to fight each other, both for almost the same exact reason. Each held the bar that the other wished to surpass.

Silently, the two stood and walked to the opposing exits of the basement to retrieve their respective weapons, leaving the rest to simply stare before Yang and Shoto hurried after Izuku, Tenya doing the same for Bakugo.

 _(Team STIK's temporary room, Izuku's POV)_

The green haired boy spun Tempest in a wide infinity arc, testing the balance before stopping and quickly switching it to scythe mode. The transformation was smooth; none of the gears or wiring were jammed. Satisfied, he turned Tempest back into its bastard sword form and snapped it to his back, briefly dusting off his blazer and his pants before he began to inspect his boots, which he had yet to give a name to.

As he was doing this, a knock came from the door to his room. While it was a gentle tattoo, the pace in which it had been made was an urgent one. "Come in," he said. Shoto, with a small push, opened the door with Yang on his heels. Izuku slightly blushed when the latter entered, but shook himself out of the daze and refocused on the task at hand. Confident with the checkup of his boots, he placed them back on his feet and began testing the mechanism as Shoto talked.

"Izuku, are you really going through with this? I don't know what went on between you and Bakugo, but this is might not be the best way to resolve it."

"I know. But this might be the only way." Izuku raised his head as he spoke, simultaneously beginning to test the other boot.

Yang then piped in, "Shoto has a point, Greenie. I still remember what happened the last time you two fought each other, and I... we don't want to see you like that again."

Izuku, hearing their concerns, set his foot down on the floor before giving the two a kind smile, saying, "I appreciate the concern, guys. Really, I do. But... I can't run away from this. I don't want to run away from this. Not anymore."

Yang then glanced down at Izuku's hands, noticing them visibly tremble. Knowing a thing or two about battle nerves via her dad, she brought his hands up and between her own, saying, "This might hurt a bit," before clapping her palms over his shaking hands.

"Ow." Izuku rubbed his hands, though the pain was only a minor annoyance. What he noticed almost immediately was that he'd stopped shaking. He looked at the blonde brawler, who gave him an encouraging smile before she said, "If we can't stop this fight from happening, we may as well support you. Can't hold Tempest with an uneven grip now, can you?" A grin slowly broke out over her face.

"Thanks!" Izuku responded before blushing, looking down at his boots as he did so. Then, as he looked down at them, he raised his head once more and asked, "Hey, do either of you have a name for my boots? I've been trying to think of one for a while now and I haven't come up with anything."

"Cirrus and Stratus!" Shoto yelled before he realized his volume, clearing his throat before continuing, "I think the names would be appropriate, what with the ones you've already given to your main weapon. They've all been wind and weather-related, correct?"

"Cirrus and Stratus..." Izuku and Yang synched as they tested out the name, how it sounded, with similar thinker hand positions just beneath their chins. "They're perfect!"

Shoto smiled at the revelation. At least all those hours of name storming wouldn't go to waste. Now to just settle on some names for team attacks, and they'd be set. Of course, they'd have to practice them first, but that could wait till later.

Izuku then stood up and walked to the door, reassuring them, "I'll be careful, don't worry. Besides, I... well, I don't feel scared at the thought of facing Bakugo. In fact..."

Izuku looked back to them with a large grin plastered across his lips, saying, "...I've never felt more excited in my life!"

 _(the main lobby, Bakugo's POV)_

Bakugo stared intensely at the briefcase in front of him, the emblazoned family symbol practically daring him to open it. Ignoring the feeling of unworthiness seated in the back of his mind, he flicked open the locks and opened the case revealing his new weapons.

The design was a bit similar to Ember Celica, proceeding into a triangular shape about three quarters along, stopping about where they were supposed to reach his elbows, but its functions were much different than Yang's weapons. They were a pair of gauntlets, with red studded knuckles in the front. They were built to cover the entirety of his forearms, the black colored metal glinting slightly in the mid-morning light with the red tint lining out the mechanisms the would shift for different purposes. Silently, he slipped them on, fitting snugly onto his arms before he gave them both test jabs. He might actually have to thank Mei for her work now... but that didn't mean he had to like what'd been done to his parka so that they could fit! He really liked the long sleeves it used to have.

His thoughts were interrupted when Tenya, quiet though he was, walked into the room and sat across from the ashen blonde with a stern look on his face. Bakugo sighed heavily, asking, "What do you want, Four Eyes?"

A few seconds of silence passed before he answered. "I'm not going to ask you to _not_ fight Izuku. It's pointless; it's not in your nature to back down form a challenge. But I do have only one request-"

"Lemme guess, don't kill Deku?" Tenya flinched slightly from Bakugo's prediction, though he did not deny the claim. The direwolf sighed, saying, "I'm not that stupid. This is a spar. But I'm not gonna hold back."

"But-"

"Look, I don't mean any offense to you, Four Eyes, but if any of you guys could actually look past our facial expressions, you'd know that Deku wasn't scared. And that I'm not as pissed as I thought I would be. I'm fucking excited as hell, and you can damn well bet that Deku is too." Bakugo checked his gauntlets, sifting through everything to make sure it worked like he needed to. Perfect to a T.

"I honestly don't know who's gonna win this fight, Four Eyes." He punched his right fist into his left palm, grinning ferally as he did so, "But the only thing I really need to know is that I won't go down easy!"

 _(five minutes later, the fighting ring, general POV)_

Torino sighed with impatience as he waited for the combatants to enter the ring. If he shifted his gaze, he would've seen varying expressions from the people still present; varying from extreme nervousness to barely contained excitement, though the latter was adorned by most of Team CFVY while the former was more common among the rest.

Then, a knock came from the door. That's odd. They weren't expecting anyone to show up. Tenya, ever the studious one, was also aware of this, and, after excusing himself from his conversation from Bakugo, walked to the door and opened it, revealing two very unexpected guests. A grey gunmetal haired boy, whose name he recalled was Mercury, and a mint haired, dark-skinned young woman by the name of Emerald. From what he and Izuku had previously gathered, they were both a part of Team CDEM and were both very formidable fighters. Their leader and other teammate, Cinder and Dabi, were both shrouded in mystery, and neither was currently with them. But we're getting off track...

"Can I help you?" Tenya asked the two, Emerald taking the lead as she introduced herself, "Hi. I'm Emerald. The idiot behind me is Mercury."

"Hey!" Mercury said in exaggerated offense.

"Well, it's true," Emerald said with a smirk. "Anyway, we heard that a couple of teams were staying in this building. You with them?"

"Yes, why do you-"

It was at that moment Yang shouted back to the spectacled boy as she and Shoto walked after Izuku, "C'mon, Spectacles! The match is gonna start soon!"

"I'll be right there! And please stop calling me that!" Tenya replied before he turned back and said, "Do you need anything specific?"

"Err... are we interrupting something?" Mercury asked as he scratched the back of his head.

"Not at all. In fact, you're welcome to watch, if you'd like." Tenya stepped out of the doorway, his arm making an inviting gesture towards the inside of the building.

"Well, aren't you a gentleman." Emerald said with a wink, causing the spectacled boy to blush ever so slightly as she stepped inside, continuing, "We'd be delighted."

Mercury, at a loss for words, sighed heavily before he walked after his teammate, muttering, "I hate you so much," just under his breath.

"I know," Emerald said with a smirk still plastered on her face.

As they proceeded towards the basement, Mercury then asked, "Well, just what are we getting invited to, anyway?"

"Must be entertaining if this guy invited us inside," Emerald responded as she shrugged, not really sure herself.

Tenya simply looked back at them and held out his hand, saying, "I'll have to take your Scrolls before we proceed inside. I may have invited you in here, but I'd rather not give you something to go over for strategy. You might be eventual opponents, after all."

Emerald mentally winced at that, though not in shame. Fortunately for her, she managed to maintain her false smile as she said, "Polite _and_ smart. Heh. I wish I'd met you sooner." She handed over her Scroll, and Mercury, though he was very reluctant about it, did the same.

"Thank you. I promise to return these when we're done." Tenya thanked them with a slight bow before they then proceeded to the basement proper.

Torino looked over at Tenya and eyed the new guests as they entered. The spectacled boy walked over to the monochrome colored huntsman, explaining, "They were at the front door and I did not wish to be rude and leave them outside with no explanation. I believe it was the polite thing to do."

"Polite and _stupid_. They're on an enemy team. Don't ever do that again." Torino minorly berated him before asking, "Did you at least get their Scrolls?"

"Yes, in order to ensure they wouldn't be able to glean any tactical advantages from the matches. Though I did promise to return them once the two left." Tenya said as he briefly showed him the Scrolls before pocketing them once more.

"Well, that's something at least." As he finished this thought, Bakugo came down the opposing staircase to the basement Izuku had taken, the latter of whom was now standing calmly in the leftmost end of the fighting ring, his arms crossed and eyes closed in a preemptive meditative state. His opponent hardly tried to hid his footsteps, causing the green haired boy to open his eyes as the ashen blonde direwolf entered the ring. They both wore similar, determined expressions, though Bakugo's was far more feral than Izuku's. And so, here they stood, their hardest fight now only seconds away from starting.

 **(A/N: Jet Set Run/You Say Run V.2 OST from My Hero Academia)**

Slowly, with intense, daring gazes exchanged between them, the two combatants drew their weapons, Izuku holding Tempest forward in both hands while Bakugo held his normal stance, the long, curved, back pointing red blades on the outsides of his arms now unsheathed, ending at his elbows. Tension filled the air between them before finally-

"Begin!"

They sped towards each other like bullets, clashing in the center of the ring with the loud **CLANG!** of steel meeting steel, visibly causing a circular ripple to speed through the air. They stayed still only a moment before they began to exchange rapid attacks, Bakugo with flurries of jabs and punches while Izuku made several calculated slashes to counter them.

The surprisingly evenly matched standoff continued for several seconds before Izuku found an opportunity to properly strike, raising Tempest above his head in what was to be a downward, cleaving slash. Bakugo barely managed to raise his arms in time to block the attack, an even louder **CLANG!** erupting from this clash than the last. Izuku pressed his weight into the clash, slowly pushing Bakugo further backward, further down. With Full Cowl now activated, it wouldn't stay a clash for much longer.

Then, a lopsided, fang-baring smirk came onto his face as two gun barrels emerged from the top of his gauntlets. The outermost, larger barrels fired off explosions larger than almost any the ashen blonde could otherwise make naturally, creating enough momentum for him to sweep his arms outwards, steel edges screaming as they dragged against each other, causing Izuku to be launched several meters back before he skidded to a halt, holding Tempest in his dominant hand with a tight grip as he stared down the smoke cloud Bakugo's larger explosion had created.

The direwolf blew himself upwards, his hands craned like claws before he pointed them backward and launched himself straight for Izuku, his right hand cocked back in preparation for a hook strike. Izuku knew this was one of his favorite moves, and dodged accordingly, with a spinning slash attack prepared to hit his opponent square in the back as Tempest began to glow with the power of the explosion Bakugo had caused.

What he did not anticipate was for Bakugo to fire the innermost barrel on his left gauntlet, causing a spray of bullets to erupt from his arm and forcing Izuku to back away with all haste. The continuous onslaught of bullets followed him as he ran around the ring, gaining speed as Bakugo yelled **"DIE!"** every half second. Once he gained enough speed, Izuku suddenly stopped and jumped towards Bakugo with his leg outstretched to deliver an air cracking kick to Bakugo's head, finding its mark in the ashen blonde's jaw and sending him straight into the shiny steel wall, leaving a rather large imprint of Bakugo's body for all to see.

This, of course, only enraged Bakugo even further. Or, at least, it seemed to. As the direwolf faunus pulled himself out of the imprint, his grin grew wider and more feral. This was it. Izuku was starting to cut loose.

Izuku too realized this and smiled. If this was what a fair fight felt like, then he was enjoying it all too much. And he didn't care.

But Bakugo did not stay idle, dashing at Izuku before they once again began the game of cat and mouse, with the ashen blonde swiping wildly with his blades, aiming to hit Izuku even if the boy was continuously dodging the attacks. The green haired inheritor then managed to land on one of Bakugo's hands and deliver a brutal sweeping low kick to the left side of his head. However, the ashen blonde instead used the added momentum to his advantage and, with the help of an explosion and a shot from his right blast gun, brutally elbowed Izuku straight into the wall, kicking up and appropriately large dust cloud.

"Hah... hah..." Bakugo huffed and panted as he rubbed his right hand gingerly. That explosion had put a lot of strain on it, and-

 **BLAM!BLAM!**

-and Izuku was giving him no time to think, shooting off from the wall with Tempest shifted into scythe mode, the prepared strike aimed right at the ashen blonde's torso. Though he was able to dodge the majority of the blow, the tip still managed to nick his parka, and if he'd stayed in front of this particular attack when it had hit, he would've been blown to the other end of the room along with the wind slice Izuku had added to the strike.

And something was different about the way he was moving, Bakugo noticed this as he began narrowly dodging Izuku's attacks; and I do mean narrowly. It wasn't just that he was moving faster, or that he was better with Tempest's scythe mode than sword mode; the blows seemed stronger, more calculated, and held far more intent behind them.

Izuku too knew this, because he'd decided to finally take Torino's advice to heart, and start getting stronger, to push himself further. He'd accessed it. His body was handling 8% of One for All's full power. Was it a great power increase? No, it wasn't. Not even close. But...

 _But it's enough to keep up!_

Bakugo's feral grin somehow grew ever wider as he began to meet Izuku's wide, lightning-fast slashes with his own blades. Small though they were, he still countered the strikes made towards his body, still narrowly dodging the blows he couldn't catch.

Izuku then buried Tempest's scythe blade halfway into the ground, using the handle to lift himself from the ground, spin and double spring kick right into Bakugo's torso, sending him flying into the same wall as he had before, making the imprint from earlier even larger.

"… Okay, Deku..." Bakugo emerged from enlarger imprint with barely hidden excitement lacing his gaze, the fangs of his growing somehow growing even larger as he continued "You wanna go all out? Fine by me..."

"Just don't expect me to hold back!" He then launched himself into the air, blowing himself around the ring at a rapid pace, gaining momentum for what would likely be a very flashy, devastating attack.

Izuku fully grinned at this, pulling Tempest free of the floor, bringing the blade behind him, holding it at a sideways angle while he charged the weapon with his Aura, causing it to glow a bright, vibrant neon green. No one, not even Izuku, noticed this, but the barest hints of crystal began to cover the edge of the scythe blade and where his hands grasped the curved pole.

Bakugo, now with more than enough momentum, launched himself once more at the green haired boy standing in the center with his right hand outstretched, leaving a large smoke trail behind him as his hand glowed a bright, blinding auburn. Izuku rushed forwards to meet it, swinging his scythe with more strength then he'd ever had access to, both yelling out names of their respective attacks.

 **"HOWITZER IMPACT!"**

 **"CYCLONE GROVE!"**

The clash of power kicked up the wind and brought the dust up with it, blinding most of the people in the stands even before the smoke cloud rose and covered the ring. Yang dashed to the edge, her hands barely stopping her body from tumbling over, her amethyst eyes filled with worry. Shoto, Tenya, Jaune, Velvet, and Ruby soon joined her, with similar expressions painted on their features.

For several, painfully long seconds, silence encompassed and deafened the room. No one moved. No one cheered. They watched and waited for the smoke to pass. When it did...

The two combatants laid across from each other on their backs, Izuku's grip on Tempest loose and Bakugo's fists finally unclenched. They were both panting, exhausted, and grinning like idiots. They didn't know who'd fallen first, and neither of them cared. They'd fought their hardest, and neither had come out on top. Not yet.

 **(A/N: End Song)**

"This match is a draw," Torino announced to the watching teams, prompting Yang and Shoto to hop over the railing and dash towards Izuku, while Velvet and Tenya did the same for Bakugo. While they were both still conscious, they were very sore, and their Aura's had been shattered. Add in the fact that they'd both used very advanced attacks that they hadn't tried out before, and they probably wouldn't be standing for the next ten minutes, at least.

They were brought back up to the stands and sat by their respective friends; or in Bakugo's case, people he could tolerate; but not before they exchanged a brief, almost nonexistent glance. Gone was the fear that laid dotting Izuku's gaze, as well as the hostility that had ghosted over Bakugo's. Now, they both held the same, though varied, versions of the same two emotions. Both held determination to surpass each other from before, and now, each held some form of respect for the other. They weren't friends. Not yet. Not even close. But they were teammates. Rivals. Enemies no longer. And that, for the moment, was enough.

"You gonna be okay, Greenie?" Yang asked with concern in her eyes, and Shoto, while he did not voice it, silently asked the same thing.

"Yeah. I think I'll be fine in a few minutes. Sorry for the trouble." the green haired boy in question said with a sheepish smile on his face, awkwardly scratching the back of his head while he did so.

"No trouble at all. Just warn us whenever you use an attack like that again, okay?" Shoto asked.

"Sure thing!" Izuku said as he continued to converse with the two of them, he and Yang occasionally blushing whenever they held each other's gaze for too long.

Meanwhile, Bakugo was having a conversation between his two helpers, though it was more or less a lecture being delivered by Tenya while Velvet tried to diffuse the situation. Keyword: try.

"-idiotic, almost uncontrollable, borderline dead-brained-"

"I get it, okay? But-"

"-and it's exactly what we need for the Vytal Festival!"

.

..

…

"What?" Bakugo and Velvet synched, both equally confused by Tenya's reaction to his and Izuku's display.

"That was an incredible technique! Easily a tide turner if we ever get in a bad spot! How did you learn it? It looked almost as powerful as the other one you used during the Breach!"

"Wait, I'm missing some context here." Velvet said, now completely lost.

"Long story short: I used a technique that used up what was left of my Aura and wrecked my last weapons. It was a last resort kind of thing. It was worth killing that brain-faced bastard, though."

"Ooookay... well, that aside, are you going to be alright?" Velvet said with a hint of concern in her voice.

"I'll be fine." Bakugo said with finality, a few seconds passing before he muttered under his breath, "Thanks."

This caused Velvet to smile and respond, "You're very welcome!" before she snapped a picture of Bakugo...'s new weapons.

Up near the back, Emerald and Mercury conversed with hushed voices and nervous tones; not something often coming from either of them.

"Well, what could you make of them?" Emerald asked her partner, since he had more time to deal with martial arts training than she did, despite their constant bickering over it.

"Nothing. It was a mix of instinct and technique the whole time. I couldn't spot any weak points in what they were using, and that was when I could actually see them attacking. I'm sure there are some, but I couldn't see any. And they were moving way faster than a lot of pro hunters could. Plus, those finishing attacks... well, let's just say I'm not sticking around if they try to use one of those on me. Jeez, I knew from our spar that jade-for-brains was tough, but this... this is something else," Mercury said, for once, without a hint of sarcasm in his voice. This was one of the few times Emerald saw him be serious. And it honestly scared her.

Still, they couldn't stay like that forever, especially since the next match was about to begin. And so, both eager and nervous, they watched, and even though they would not remember everything, they'd at least remember how terrifying their opponents could be.

 _(one hour later, Weiss' POV)_

"Draw!" Torino shouted, the last match of the day finally over and done with. Fox and Weiss were holding their respective blades to each other's throats, though they quickly backed away once they realized both of their Auras had been shattered. Most of the rest had gone upstairs, leaving Torino, Emerald and Mercury, along with Tenya down there with them, though they too quickly filed out after giving their congratulations.

Neither really noticing, the white-haired heiress bowed politely to her opponent, saying, "You are a most worthy fighter, Mr. Alistair," she lifted herself from the bow, "though I must ask, how were you able to see my attacks? Forgive me for being blunt, but your teammates said you were... well, blind. No offense."

"None taken. And it's mostly got to do with my semblance."

"And that would be..."

"Nice try, but no, I ain't telling you," Fox said with a smirk on his face.

"Damnit!" Weiss said before she caught herself, covering her mouth before she muttered an apology.

"Relax, would you? I'm used to people swearing by now. You should hear Coco when she's angry."

"… what-"

"WOULD YOU KINDLY TELL ME HOW, IN THE SEVEN OUMDAMMED HELLS, YOU MANAGED TO FUCK UP SOMETHING SO SIMPLE?!"

.

..

…

"… see what I mean?"

"Yes, she does appear to have quite the mouth." Weiss relented.

"Yeah, but she only uses that kind of language when someone hits on me, or-"

"DAMMIT, I DID NOT FUCKING ASK FOR THESE KINDS OF SUNGLASSES, YOU DUMBASS! AVIATORS! IT'S NOT THAT FUCKING HARD TO REMEMBER!"

"Yup, someone messed up one of her orders again." Fox sighed before he began to walk upstairs with Weiss on his heels, the latter eager to know what all the commotion was about. And she was not going to settle for 'it's better if you don't know' as an answer!

… well, not unless she had to.

As they emerged upstairs, they saw Coco with a cardboard box filled with sunglasses of varying models, with her Scroll held directly in front of her, prepared to yell again before sighed and said, "Fine, fine. But I'm going to get my money's worth one way or another. Good day, sir!" She hung up, placed her Scroll on the couch, put her hands on her face and sighed. "Dammit. I really wanted those pairs too."

"Relax, Coco. They're just sunglasses." Fox said as he hopped over the couch, landing right next to her before he continued, "It's not the end of the world. Besides, I thought you wanted variety."

"… they were supposed to be for the rest of the team, ya know? As a celebration present for the Vytal Festival and all." Coco hung her head in self-loathing.

"Don't worry about it so much. Besides..." Fox pulled out a black bandana from one of his pockets and wrapped it around his eyes, continuing, "… I think this look suits me better, don't you?"

Coco raised her head, looking at Fox for a few silent seconds before she chuckled, saying, "I'd be lying if I said it didn't look cool."

"Thank you." Fox said with a smile, twitching his head towards Weiss as he said, "Sorry to boot you out like this, but-"

"Leaving. Leaving. Already gone." Weiss said as she repeatedly waved her arms horizontally, doing the best she could to hide the blush on her face as she proceeded upstairs before the two... well, I'll leave _that_ up to your imagination.

 _(a few hours later, Team STIK's temporary room, general POV)_

"C'mon Izuku, you can do it!"

"Keep going, Midoriya!"

"Crush him, Yang!"

"Show him Team RWBY gives no mercy!"

"… what are we doing again?" Bakugo and Blake synched, clearly not interested in just what was going on. Though the latter had one of her guilty pleasure books out to emphasize it.

"I think they're playing some kind of... video game? I don't know, I've never really into this stuff the way Mercury is." Emerald answered, equally as disinterested. She didn't even know why they were still there, but apparently, at the word 'video game,' Mercury wouldn't budge and insisted that he play. Really, not an inch.

Izuku and Yang were currently sitting on the floor in front of the recently repaired, old-school TV Bakugo and Fox had found while they were fixing the basement. They currently had their Scrolls hooked up to it, and while it wasn't the best TV, it certainly worked well enough for video games, evidently proved by the fact that Yang was now kicking Izuku's avatar all across the screen-

 _"KO! Chivalrous Reaper! Wins!"_

"Dang it!" Yang yelled, snapping her head towards her green haired opponent, saying, "Rematch!"

"C'mon Yang, we've been playing for the last twenty minutes. Shouldn't someone else have a go at it?"

"Yes, please?" Mercury asked with the cutest does eyes he could muster. Unfortunately, Yang had had plenty of years to build up resistance with Ruby, firmly saying, "No way. Not until I finally-"

"Oh, c'mon. You two can have a rematch later." Velvet protested. "Pleeeeeeease?"

.

..

…

"… okay, fine." Yang relented, handing her controller over to Velvet, who beamed along with Mercury when Izuku gave him his controller. They then chose their characters and began beating the digital crap out of each other.

"Well, at least I know where you learned that badass move you used in the ring," Yang said as they watched Mercury and Velvet play along with the others, the two being surprisingly evenly matched. "I wonder which moves I should use. They seem like they'd be useful."

"Hmm... I think you'd be able to imitate Long and Jeong Jeong's move sets to some degree, maybe mix them up. I mean, Ember Celica is ideal for hand to hand combat, so you wouldn't need to adjust your weaponsandwhatwiththefactthatLawitergratesalotofheavypunchesandJeongJeongusesfireitactuallymightbeidealforyouto-"

"Whoa, whoa, easy there, Greenie." Yang said as she placed her hand on his shoulder, breaking his mumbling before she continued, "Let's just go over your notes."

"Oh, sure!" Izuku blushed before he stood up and walked over to his backpack and began to dig through it, eventually bringing out two notebooks, one of which she'd seen him writing in during the fights earlier. Where he'd pulled it out from, she did not know. Though she did note that he zipped upstairs while they were on break.

"Okay, let's see..." The pages of Izuku's journal flipped at an almost hyper-speed pace for a full second before he stopped, the page he landed on showing the combat style and moves for Long, a hand to hand fighter with much the same style of fighting as Yang, with the exception that he used kicks more.

As the two talked fighting styles, Shoto and Blake noticed their partners banter despite the fact that a rather loud battle between Mercury and Velvet was just concluding, with the latter as the overly enthusiastic winner.

"Are you sure they aren't a couple yet?" The raven-haired faunus asked the half and half leader with a touch of disbelief in her voice.

"Positive," Shoto answered with a slight smirk on his face, his gaze hinted with longing for his own lover.

"How?"

"If they were, I don't think we'd be in the same room as them for at least the next hour."

"… really?"

"Well, I don't think they'd go _that_ far right away, but yeah, they'd probably be making out for hours on end."

"… okay, I guess you do have a point." Blake relented as the two turned their attention back to the next round of the game, which an angry Bakugo and a much calmer Yatsuhashi were now playing, though the former was more or less mashing the buttons randomly while the latter was trying to figure out what part of the controller did what.

Meanwhile, Izuku and Yang were currently finishing up their conversation, now with several moves to test out and notes to go over. That and the notes Izuku had taken on everyone.

"Where do you find the time to take all of these?" Yang asked with a disbelieving look in her eyes, to which Izuku responded, "W-well, you'd be surprised how much free time Goodwitch gave to me and Bakugo after that fight at the start of the year. I think she was afraid we'd break the stadium again."

Yang laughed, placing her arm around his shoulder as she said, "You've got a point there," causing Izuku to laugh as well. Neither noticed that the other was blushing

A loud knock came from the door to the room, almost immediately followed by, "Get your butts down here. Dinner's ready."

As Torino finished his sentence, the digital bout between Yatsu and Bakugo had just finished, with the latter yelling his victory at the top of his lungs while the former simply stood with a calm air about him, thanking Bakugo for the game before he headed downstairs, the others slowly filing out after him.

As they emerged from the upstairs, they saw the long, wood table with several chairs lining the edges, two of which had been added for Emerald and Mercury. The table itself was filled with food of all kinds, a plate seated in front of every chair, blank and ready to be filled with whichever foods they desired. Standing near the table was Torino, outfitted with a rather large, almost cartoonish chef's hat and dwarf sized apron to match with a devilish grin on his face. The reason for this smile was revealed to be Coco and Fox, who were now standing as far from Torino as they could without him noticing, though they still looked a little a bit disheveled from... whatever the hell it was they were doing earlier.

With a grand sweeping gesture with Shinboku in its contrasted form towards the table, Torino gave a full tooth grin to the descending trainees before saying, "Dig in everybody!"

And dig in they most certainly did. Every seat and plate was filled within a matter of thirty seconds, possibly less, and chatter flew about the room like rain in a downpour. There were many a subject being discussed, and Izuku wasn't entirely sure he caught everything that was discussed. But he didn't feel the need to worry. He felt happy. Like he had no worries at all. And so, they laughed, they ate, they had fun simply talking and joking with one another. And they continued for at least four hours, their joy never fading for even a fraction of a second.

 **A/N: And it's done! Finally! Also, holy crap! Over 40,000 views and 200 followers! This is awesome! I'm running out of ways to show my gratitude to you guys for all the support, so I'll just keep on keeping on and continue writing for you guys! Thank you all so much for everything!**

 **Shout out to these two particular stories: The Witcher: Of Fire & Roses by Vospader21, and Beacon's Greatest Huntsmen by WolfFaunas3. They're both incredible stories by awesome writers that I think could use some more attention, so if it wouldn't be too much trouble, go ahead and check them out. I promise you won't be disappointed.**

 **Oh! I almost forgot: here are the match results (sorry I couldn't write them out):**

 **1: Izuku vs Bakugo: Draw**

 **2: Coco vs Blake: Coco Wins**

 **3: Ruby vs Yatsuhashi: Yatsuhashi Wins**

 **4: Yang vs Tenya: Yang Wins**

 **5: Velvet vs Shoto: Shoto Wins**

 **6: Fox vs Weiss: Draw**

 **And before you're wondering, Cirrus and Stratus are different types of clouds, and I thought they sounded catchy and fit Izuku's naming pattern. And now, the updated profiles. Yes, you read correctly, profiles.**

 **1-Izuku Midoriya**

 **Age: 18**

 **Race: Human**

 **BDay: 07/15**

 **Handedness: Right**

 **Hair: Green and Messy**

 **Eyes: Dark Green**

 **Blood Type: O**

 **Height: 5ft 8.5in / 174.27cm**

 **Gender: M**

 **Semblance: One for All, a power passed down willingly from person to person. This was given to Izuku by All Might, the most powerful huntsman to ever live. He cannot use it to its full potential, however, as even trying will force him to break his own limbs. He has a way to bypass this, a technique called Full Cowl, which, ironically enough, is the name he uses as a cover. Full Cowl can allow Izuku to safely tap into 5% of One for All's full power.**

 **Weapons: Tempest, a bastard sword/scythe with the same basic design, Vacuean Runes, and color as its previous form, Gale, allowing Izuku to focus more on his greatest strengths: speed and on-the-fly analyzation tactics. He's finding it easier to use the wind dust in this form, though the power output can be lower than Gale's at times. Still, it is a deadly weapon when put into the right hands, specifically his.**

 **Cirrus and Stratus, a pair of shotgun boots made for him as a gift by Mei. Basic, but deadly.**

 **Fighting Style: Mixed Swordsmanship, Advanced Scythesmanship, Taekwondo**

 **Range: Close-Mid**

 **2- Katsuki Bakugo**

 **Age: 18**

 **Race: Direwolf Faunus**

 **BDay: 04/20**

 **Handedness: Right**

 **Hair: Ash Blond and Spiky**

 **Eyes: Red**

 **Blood Type: A**

 **Height: 5ft 10in/ 177.8cm**

 **Gender: M**

 **Semblance: Explosion, allows Bakugo to ignite the air around his hands with enough force to rival fire dust, though overuse will cause side effects since his joints and shoulders must deal with the force of the blasts.**

 **Weapon: Smoke and Shrapnel, a pair of gauntlets that, while they share a similar design with Ember Celica, serve a very different purpose. In addition to having bulky knuckles in the front, they also have long, curved, back pointing red blades attached to the outsides of the arms. From the top can emerge two gun barrels. The outermost barrels, short and wide, can create an explosion larger than anything he was able to make before with Mortar Shell. In addition to this, the inner barrels, longer and narrower, is able to fire bullets like a machine gun, for those all-important 'just in case' moments.**

 **Fighting Style: Muay Thai**

 **Range: Close-Mid**

 **Next Chapter: Feb. 9th**

 **Seeya in the next one!**


	24. Return and Relaxation

**A/N: I felt as though I hadn't been using Team JNPR enough, so they're back in this chapter. I kinda feel like the ending was a little lackluster though. Oh well, enjoy the chapter!**

 **Disclaimer: I do not own RWBY or My Hero Academia. They belong to Monty Oum, Kohei Horikoshi, and their respective publishing companies. Please support the official releases.**

 **I do not own the cover image**

Chapter 24: Return and Relaxation

The Bullhead glided over the vast, lush forest like a runaway cloud, leaving the massive sprouts of foliage almost entirely undisturbed as it flew towards their current destination: the city of Vale. As they came above the overpass, the aforementioned city finally came into sight, with street lights flickering off as the morning sun began to rise over the open, now glistening ocean.

"The city is rather beautiful in the morning," Ren commented, his legs dangled from the edge of the open sliding door as an almost unnoticeable smile appearing on his lips, though it did reach his magenta eyes.

"Well duh, Renny! I totally told you it was pretty!" Nora added as she scooched closer to him with a slight blush on her face, "You've gotta see how it looks from the beach! It's freaking awesome!"

Pyrrha chuckled at her bubbly teammate's enthusiasm from her seat, saying, "I can't wait to see it! It sounds like a lot of fun."

"Maybe sometime later. Right now, we've got some people to check up on, and I've got a weapon to pick up! Oh! Thanks for the shadowing offer, Port!" Jaune said to the potbellied professor, who twirled his mustache as he responded with a bellowing laugh, "Ha ha! It was no problem at all! Although I don't really envy your position."

 _ **"What do you mean, professor? Our first mission is over, is it not?"**_ Lancelot said as his helmet materialized a few inches from Jaune's head, and both were slightly inclined to show their confusion.

"Yes, it is. However, you're not going back to Beacon; at least, not right away. Your team is being transferred to an old teacher of mine. Gran Torino, one of the most renowned huntsmen to never receive a place in the Big Four. And, if the rumors from all those years ago were correct, All Might's personal mentor."

That got their attention. Jaune leaned forward, Lancelot's helmet floated closer, Pyrrha's eyes widened in shock, Ren looked back with interest hidden in his gaze, and Nora... well, ya know... this is Nora we're talking about. She zipped over to Port and immediately began bombarding him with questions, slowly becoming more and more ridiculous as they continued to come sprawling out without a filter.

"Now now, calm down miss Valkyrie. While he can be intimidating to many people; believe me, I know the feeling; he's actually one of the greatest huntsmen you'll ever meet. I would recommend not getting on his bad side though."

"… bad side?" Everyone else present asked with a hint of nervousness tinging their voices, and though Lancelot did not voice his concern, the now lifted visor that revealed the empty interior of his helmet spoke for itself.

"Yes. You know about the rumors of Goodwitch's detentions, yes?"

The whole of Team JNPR nodded in synch, almost robotically, and similar expressions of unease crept their way onto their faces. Port then continued, "Imagine the quietest, most boring and intimidating classroom in existence and multiply it by Grimm. And that's only five minutes. I'd only been in one of them, and it was the most harrowing experience of my life. About a decade after I first began my tenure as a professor, I was rather shocked to find that Goodwitch was always ending up in Torino's detentions. She was normally quite a remarkable student, and rather strict about following the rules. She and Torino had many disagreements on that front. If you think her detentions are bad, they were inspired by Torino's. I apologize for my language, but I warn you, don't fuck with him or you will live to regret it if you're lucky."

They were all surprised by the professor's choice of words. As far as any of them could recall, Port had never sworn at anyone or for anything. If he was using those kinds of words, he was being deadly serious.

"Well, the mood's gotten rather gloomy now, hasn't it?" Port said as he reverted back to his cheery self, easing the air to a happier one as he continued, "I'm sure you'll be fine. You're all quite excellent students, and I wouldn't have offered you this opportunity if I didn't think you deserved it. Oh, and Ms. Valkyrie, be sure to build up your stamina. Using that semblance of yours takes a lot of endurance, even if you do absorb electricity."

"You got it, sir!" Nora exclaimed as she bubbly saluted the potbellied professor, glad to change the subject to something that wasn't as scary as Torino's detentions.

 _(thirty minutes later, near Torino's apartment building, Jaune's POV)_

The walk to Torino's apartment wasn't a quiet one, as the team tried to diffuse the tension of meeting their soon to be mentor. Ren and Nora were discussing when to see the city from the beach, Pyrrha tried to strike put a conversation with Jaune, though every time she tried she started to blush almost the same color as her hair. It wouldn't have mattered anyhow, as Jaune was currently having a conversation with Lancelot in his head, and completely oblivious to the conversations between his other teammates.

 _Well, what do you think we should do about Torino? If he's really as bad as Port made him out to be, I don't think we'd be able to survive. Well, Pyrrha would definitely survive, but the rest of us have pretty slim chances, especially me._

 _ **We simply have to, as you would aptly put it, 'not piss him off.' Besides, I do not believe we need to worry about that, at least for the time being. We should be focusing on perfecting this link we recently discovered. What did you call it again?**_

 _Paladin Mode._

 _ **Ah, yes, that ridiculous name.**_

 _Hey, it's not like you could come up with anything better!_

 _ **I believe I might be able to do just that.**_

 _Then do it._

 _ **Right now?**_

 _This second._

.

..

…

 _ **...I see your point.**_

 _Thank you._

 _ **Although I still do not think that 'Flower Power' is a viable team attack name.**_

 _Then name one!_

 _ **Thunder Lotus.**_

.

..

…

 _...okay, that one was actually pretty good._

 _ **Thank you. Now while I would like to continue this conversation, your team is currently calling for you. Good luck inside.**_

As is on cue, the sounds of the normal world rushed in like light into a pitch-black room, Nora in the middle of yelling to get her leader's attention, "-AUNE! REMNANT TO OUR BRAVE LEADER! HELLOOOOO?"

"Augh!" Jaune leapt up in surprise, falling rather painfully on his back, luckily not hitting his head. Pyrrha, concerned for her leader's immediate health, knelt down and helped the blonde knight to his feet, rubbing the back of his head as he chided, "Darn it, Nora! That hurt!"

In response, the copper-haired huntress laughed awkwardly while she scratched the back of her head, saying, "Sooorry," in her almost always bubbly tone, "but you were staring off into space again."

"I told her to get you out of your head," Ren said with his signature deadpan stare. "We've arrived."

The raven-haired ninja inclined his head to his right, where stood Torino's apartment building. Unlike what Port had told them on the Bullhead, it looked as though it had been recently repaired, and rather well at that. The sign hanging over the door said **WELCOME** in yellow, contrasting the red the rest of the sign was painted in. The oaken colored double doors were the most intimidating part of the setup, though it was more of the thought of what was behind it than the actual entrance.

...wait, why do I feel like something random and ridiculous is about to happen?

As if on cue-

 **CRASH!**

-a rather frantic looking Tenya leapt out the rightmost window on the bottom floor of the complex, yelling an apology over his shoulder before he was soon after followed by a rather infuriated looking Bakugo, who shouted, "Gimme back my bacon, dammit!"

"Yours?! This is mine!" Tenya retorted before he sped behind the building, Bakugo following after him like his subspecies namesake, while their other two teammates rushed after them so that the latter wouldn't kill the former. Izuku, seeing Team JNPR with rather confused looks on their faces, said a brief greeting to the team before resuming the chase after his teammates.

"...what the hell just happened?" was all Jaune could ask before Torino kicked open the double doors with a surprising amount of strength, considering his height and age, and sped after Team STIK, yelling, "You could've used the damn door! I don't have enough Lien to pay for another Oumdamn window!"

"...I'm not sure we want to know." Ren deadpanned, which the rest of JNPR simultaneously nodded at.

A gasp came from the entrance to the complex. As they turned, it was revealed to come from a slowly smiling Ruby, who, after a few seconds, dashed at them with her arms spread wide, knocking all of them over with a trail of rose petals leading back to the doors as she exclaimed, "YOU'RE BACK!"

"Augh! Ruby... can't... breathe..." Jaune's face turned visibly blue for emphasis.

"Oh! Sorry!" Ruby lifted herself off of the group, helping them to their feet one by one. Well, she helped everyone but Nora, who'd jumped to her feet on her own and had already zoomed inside.

"Welcome back! How was your mission?" Ruby asked with a cheery look on her face.

"It went optimally." Ren curtly answered in his normal neutral tone.

"It certainly wasn't boring, but I prefer Vale," Pyrrha said with a smile.

"Ditto for me. Although I did find something out about my semblance." Jaune said with a hint of a cocky smirk at the edge of his lips.

"Wait, what?! You developed your semblance?! Without me?!" Ruby pretended to get offended at the notion.

"Well, it's not like I planned on it happening, it sorta just... did." Jaune tried to apologize.

"Pfft, ha ha ha ha ha! I'm just messing with you Jaune. Ha ha ha!" Ruby broke down, almost laughing herself down to the ground at her own joke. If the looks on JPR's faces were anything to go by, it wasn't really all that funny.

"LET'S TEST THAT THEORY!" Nora's declaration echoed from inside the halls of the complex, causing everyone outside to turn and slowly walk inside. They found Yang and Nora sitting across from each other with their right hands placed on the coffee table, an arm wrestling contest now ensuing between the two. With an audience nonetheless. On Yang's side was Velvet, Blake, and a rather disinterested looking Weiss, while Nora was backed by Fox, a stoic Yatsuhashi, and Coco, who were soon joined by the rest of Team JNPR while Ruby backed her sister. The two visibly struggled against each other's strength, and for the first few seconds, held each other at a standstill, neither gaining ground over the other.

"Well... you're... definitely... strong..." Nora said with a grin, her arm visibly trembling at the same pace as Yang's.

"Haven't... even... started..." Yang grinned as well before she upped the intensity of her push and, a short second later, managed to slam Nora's hand into the side of the table, visibly splintering the wood and almost breaking the table in half.

Nora almost visibly teared up before her expression completely changed and, with stars in her eyes, started shouting, "HOLY CRAP THAT WAS AWESOME! DO IT AGAIN DO IT AGAIN DO IT AGAIN!"

"YOU WILL DO NO SUCH THING, YOUNG LADY!"

They then turned to find Torino standing back at the entrance with a rather ashamed looking Tenya and a livid Bakugo, who the surprisingly strong geezer was dragging inside by his ear. Behind them were Izuku and Shoto, and the former, upon seeing JNPR back properly, waved hello again before the monochrome colored huntsman yelled in frustration and continued, "That's it! You're getting me a new window and a new table, or Oum help me I will make you work till you fucking drop!"

"Yessir!" At the exact same moment, everyone there, with the exception of JNPR, lined up military style. Just how scary was this guy?

"And you four!" He pointed his cane in the direction of Team JNPR, seemingly cooling off and continuing, "Welcome to my humble abode. Sorry for the mess." He then turned to STIK, saying, "You four, however, are gonna spend the entire day training!"

"But-"

"END OF DISCUSSION!" Torino said as he then lead the aforementioned team out of the building towards what would undoubtedly be their hardest training session yet.

Teams RWBY, JNPR, and CFVY stood in the lobby in an awkward silence for several seconds, with no idea what the hell just happened or what to do next. Then, slowly, Coco said, "Well... who's up for a shopping trip?"

"I'm game," Yang said as Nora nodded.

"Me too." Velvet answered with Yatsu and Fox relenting, both knowing how... enthusiastic their leader could be about clothes. Seriously, she spent more on her clothes than she did on ammo.

"I do need some new books," Blake commented as Ren and Pyrrha, now realizing they were going to be dragged along as well, both silently screamed and began to beam respectively.

"I need to pick up Crocea Mors anyway." Jaune said, causing Teams RWBY and CFVY to immediately snap their heads towards him with hints of either fear or excitement contained in their looks, Ruby saying, "Who'd you give it to?"

"I gave it to Mei. Izuku recommended her."

That was when Ruby and Velvet began to bombard him with questions and actually began to drag him towards the door, the two clearly excited to see the pink dreadlocked weapon smith again, while Pyrrha, Weiss, and Yatsu went along to make sure they didn't stay there too long. Well, the former two were just making sure Jaune would survive the trip over there.

"So, who's up for getting the stuff we need to see tomorrow?" Coco asked, causing a reluctant Ren, Fox, and surprisingly Blake, to silently raise their hands. Coco, knowing that she had enough money to cover them, gave them five hundred Lien for the purchases. "Just give me whatever's leftover, okay?"

"Got it. Thanks, babe." Fox thanked his chocolate themed girlfriend, giving her a chaste kiss on the forehead before he followed the stoic duo out the doors, causing Coco to blush ever so slightly.

"You two are dating?!" Nora yelled in surprise.

"Yeah. We don't brag about it, but it isn't exactly a secret." Coco briefly explained before she continued, "So, who wants to go on a shopping trip?"

"Sorry to disappoint you, Coco, but I'm pretty broke right now," Yang said, pulling out her wallet for emphasis.

"Ditto for me. I spent the last of my Lien on grenades."

.

..

…

"...what? Girl's got her needs."

Coco sighed at Nora's quirkiness **(A/N: the social kind! Not the power kind)** and pulled out her own wallet, saying with a cocky smile, "Don't you worry about it. I'll be paying this time, " as she opened it causing a golden light to shine out of it, causing those stars from before to reappear in Nora's eyes. This simultaneously caused Yang to question her friend's sanity.

 _(undisclosed location, around the same time, Dabi's POV)_

"Why do I always have to deal with this crap?" Dabi muttered under his breath as Tomura daintily passed him a shopping list, the latter saying, "Because, while I would like to do this myself, I'm way too recognizable. Plus, you're already known to not show your whole face, at least as far as Beacon is concerned. It'll be easy, as long as you steer clear of Atlas."

"You almost sound worried about me," Dabi said in his deadpan tone as he pocketed the paper.

"I'm not," Tomura said as he turned back to his screen.

"I know," Dabi said as he exited his bosses room. He walked down the hallway with a hint of excitement in his eye, though it was rather minimal. He had a few things to pick up anyways, so, as the saying often went: two birds, one stone.

"Daaabiii..." Himiko called for the stitch covered boy with a singsong tone in her voice, continuing, "Where are you goooiiing?"

"I've got some shopping to do, courtesy of our boss." Dabi plainly stated.

"Can you take me with you?" Himiko tried to use her puppy eyes on the black haired pyromancer, though due to his emotional neutrality he was more than able to resist and simply respond, "No."

"But whyyyy?"

"You'd try to kill the first cute guy you saw."

"… no, I wouldn't!"

"That's not gonna work on me."

Himiko then began to wail dramatically, and Dabi, stoic as ever, left her to wail by herself, finding his way towards the exit of the base, a long day of shopping now ahead of him. Hopefully, he'd get to wreck a few AK's in the process, but that was unlikely at best.

 _(9:02 am, Maijima's Gadgets and Guns, Jaune's POV)_

"Well, here we are," Jaune said as they stood outside the shop. The first thing he'd noticed was that most of the weapons were gone from the shelves, and a sign posted in one of the windows said **HALF OFF ALL PURCHASES**. Mei was currently manning the front counter while Maijima was likely elsewhere in the back, tinkering with a new weapon model of some kind.

"Ooooooo... this place looks so cool!" Ruby and Velvet squealed in synch, being the weapon nerds they were, and both had stars in their eyes. Jaune was actually pretty sure Ruby started drooling.

"But the shelves look rather barren, don't you think?" Pyrrha pointed out, getting an agreeing nod from Yatsu, both with worried looks on their faces. Weiss held a look of minor interest before shifting her attention back to the group.

"I'm sure it's alright, guys. Look, we'll just ask her about it. There shouldn't be any need to make a big deal out of it."

 _(two minutes later)_

"You're moving to Mistral?!" Jaune, Ruby, and Velvet all synched in shock, while Pyrrha, Weiss, and Yatsu, though they remained quiet, were also visibly surprised, if their widening eyes were anything to go by.

Mei awkwardly scratched the back of her head, saying, "Yeaaaaaah. Sorry we didn't tell you."

Jaune, now over the initial shock, sighed to himself and said, "No, I'm sorry for freaking out. You didn't have a reason to tell me about that."

"But why?!" Ruby and Velvet synched once more. They really were scarily similar whenever it came to weapons.

"Well, Mistral is practically the trading capital of Remnant. I've always wanted to go there, I just didn't think I'd go there so soon. Plus, with some of the new smithing techniques I've been figuring out, we'll be able to make a ton more Lien once we're over there." Mei explained.

"Aw man. I really wanted to get some good pictures of your weapons, too." Velvet sighed in dismay.

"Well... you've been really fun to hang around. Call me if you ever feel lonely, okay?" Ruby said as she held out her hand to the pink haired engineer. Mei, after only a second of hesitation, took the rose-themed girl's hand and shook it, replying cheerily, "You got it, weapon buddy!"

 _I have a weapon buddy!_ Ruby silently cheered, pumping her fist into the air for emphasis of her joy.

"Well, are the repairs finished yet?" Jaune asked, trying to get the conversation back on track, to which the bubbly mechanic replied, "Yep! Just give me a second to go and grab it!"

She then zipped into the workshop, loud, clanging echoes emerging from within as she dug through the place to find Jaune's weapon. Pyrrha then stepped over to her leader and asked, "Did you make any major modifications to Crocea Mors?"

"No, I just had it repaired. It was tempting, but I don't think guns are really my thing." Jaune explained.

"A valid point, Arc. I mean, my Myrtenaster is mostly a close ranged weapon, it simply has the advantage of being able to channel Dust. Some people simply aren't comfortable with using a traditional firearm in their weapons," the platinum-haired heiress explained Jaunes reasoning.

"But would a ranged weapon not give a significant advantage?" Yatsu asked, Ruby backing him up with, "Like a machine gun! Or-or an SMG! Or maybe even a DMR!"

"Guys..."

"Here it is!" Mei came out of the workshop with Crocea Mors in her hands, placing it on the counter and consequently interrupting Ruby's weapon's craze speech. She unsheathed the sword and expanded the shield, emphasizing the work she did on it. All the chips and notches that once dotted the entire length of the blade were gone, with fresh polish and sharpening jobs to almost make it gleam as though it were made of platinum. The shield looked newer as well, the Arc symbol repainted in a contrasting, darker shade of gold, and there was even a slight curve to the edges to improve the defensive capabilities.

Mei then donned a serious face, continuing, "No offense, Jaune, but this thing was pretty old. You're actually lucky you got it too me when you did, otherwise the shield's transformation mechanisms might've been locked up permanently."

"Wait, what are you trying to insinuate?" Jaune said with a vague hint of hostility.

"Nothing. This thing was made back when the barest hints of mecha-shift tech started to be developed. It was bound to break down at some point. It happens to all weapons at some point or another, it's just a lot less common since most hunters know how to do maintenance on their weapons nowadays. If I were you, I'd study up on some basic maintenance procedures and memorize the blueprints. Oh, and one more thing!" Mei pressed the pommel of the sword, causing the edges to glow yellow, electrical lines occasionally, and quickly, running up the length of the blade to the tip, where they'd briefly spark off into the air before disappearing.

"Err... Mei, I didn't ask for any mods."

"Hm? Whaddaya mean? This was already there." Mei clicked the pommel again, deactivating the current.

"What?"

"Really, this was kinda just... there. This was a hand-me-down family thing, right?"

"Yeah, why?"

"Well, maybe one of your predecessors installed it and didn't tell the others. They're probably the ones who put a prototype gun in the hilt." Jaune's eyes widened in shock. "I know, right? It was really impractical, so I just repurposed what was already there. Here, I'll show you how it works," Mei then twisted off the pommel, revealing the chamber on the inside of the hilt, which contained a similarly sized tube of Lightning Dust. "Insert whichever type of Dust you want to use in here, preferably the powdered or cylindrically cut kind, and then twist it back on and press the pommel. Remember, if the blade runs nonstop it'll only last for about five minutes, so be mindful when you use it."

Jaune took Crocea Mors' sword from the pink haired mechanic, observing it tentatively before he sighed and said, "Well, I guess I've got a lot of questions to ask my dad once I'm home. Thanks for fixing my weapon up for me."

Mei then beamed, happy to not have upset a customer. "No problem! It was actually an interesting experience."

"How much do I owe you?" Jaune asked as he brought out his wallet, only to have Mei push it away and say, "On the house. Just be sure to kick ass in the tournament, alright?"

Jaune looked genuinely surprised at that. He thought he'd have to pay Mei through his teeth in order to pay for the repairs and was pretty relieved when he realized he didn't have to. "I will!"

It was also at this moment that Ruby and Velvet dragged him away to discuss the possibilities that his weapon now held, nerding out over it the entire time. And, as per usual, Ruby was now drooling over it. And Velvet took a few extra pictures of Crocea Mors, just in case.

Pyrrha, though she was annoyed by this, knew that neither of the girls were doing that because they thought of Jaune in the same way that she did. She wanted to spend time alone with him, but she also knew that Ruby was one of Jaune's best friends. Still, it would've been nice if she could have him all to herself for once.

"Hey, you alright?"

Pyrrha's head snapped left in surprise to find that Mei was standing right next to her and staring at her with what was either concern or interest. The redheaded amazon almost jumped in surprise, though her years of training, courtesy of her mother, let her calm down rather quickly, answering, "I'm fine. Thank you for asking."

Mei then glanced towards where Pyrrha's gaze once was, then back to her. Then again. And then a devilish smile crept onto her lips as she whispered in the redheaded warrior's ear, "You like Jaune, don't you?"

As if Pyrrha hadn't blushed enough already, she was now blushing so hard her face was somehow even redder than her hair, and she somehow lost her ability to speak in proper sentences for a little bit. "I-I-I... erm... w-well..." She breathed deeply to calm herself the best she could, which wasn't really all that much, and quietly said, "Yes."

"It was about time you admitted it. Seriously, you've been swooning over him for literal months." Weiss said in a minorly annoyed voice, mostly at the prospect of being dragged along before she rejoined the others to make sure Jaune didn't get killed.

"Well, what are you waiting for? Ask him out already." Mei said as bluntly as she could.

"It's not that simple." Pyrrha rebutted.

"Seems that way to me. Look I've never been in a relationship before, so take what I say with a grain of salt, but if you don't ask him soon, someone else is going to do it first."

"I just-"

"I'm just saying that you two have been friends long enough to maybe give the whole next step thing a try. So, why not?"

Pyrrha looked back at Jaune, who was currently talking sword types with Yatsu and enjoying every minute of it. Huh. Who'd have thought that Jaune could nerd out over swords. The redhead answered slowly, "I... don't really think he's interested in that kind of thing right now. I mean, there's just so much going on. Stain was recently captured and sentenced to life in prison, Torchwick is looking at a similar punishment, and Tomura and his League are still at large; not to mention the fact that there's the Vytal Festival Tournament coming around next week. I just think something like that would complicate things even more."

"And if none of those complications were there?"

"…"

"Well, that's your business, not mine. My business is weapons and trinkets of varying mechanical variety." Mei said as she walked back to the workshop, saying over her shoulder, "Good luck!" To the group, though Pyrrha was fairly sure it was directed at her. Whether it was for the Vytal Festival or her crush on Jaune, she currently did not know.

 _(ten minutes later, Vale Mall, Fox's POV)_

"Thank you again," Fox said as he and Ren lifted the new window over their shoulders. About an hour or so ago they'd managed to buy a replacement coffee table for the one that Yang and Nora had broken during their arm wrestling match, being almost identical with the exception of being a bit larger and newer looking. Now it was just a matter of getting it back to the building without breaking it.

"Do you think Blake got her books?" Ren asked Fox, both of them currently unaware of the whereabouts of their feline eared companion. After they'd passed by a bookstore, she'd given a simple explanation and taken off inside, leaving them to get what they were tasked with retrieving.

"I dunno. I'd assume she has them, but we haven't seen her come out of that bookstore in the entire hour." Fox summed up, causing the magenta eyed ninja to nod in agreement. After a long walk, the two arrived back at the now empty apartment complex, opening one of the double doors and placing the replacement pane on the newly bought coffee table. Ironically enough, this was the time that Blake decided to show up with two armfuls of books.

A silence surrounded them, making the air grow slowly tenser as the cat-eared faunus noticed that the two had done their work without her, as did the disbelief on Ren's face. Fox, however, somehow managed to remain stoic through it all before he walked up to Blake, placed a hand on her shoulder, and said, "Are you always that much of a bookworm?"

.

..

…

"… wait, that's it?" Blake asked in relieved shock.

"What's wrong?" Fox tilted his head slightly.

"Nothing, I just... I thought you'd be angrier," she said as she placed her books on the dining table, not wanting to potentially crack the glass pane and pay for a new one.

"If I was a few years younger, yeah, I probably would be. But, I also overheard you were a massive book fanatic."

"Who told you that?"

"Yang may have let it slip during dinner last night."

Blake sighed and rubbed her face with her left palm, muttering, "of course she would do that," under her breath before saying, "I'm sorry. It's gotten to be a problem lately."

"I wouldn't call it that." Blake donned a confused look once more. "I'd call it more of a quirk."

"But it's not my quirk."

"The social kind, dummy." Fox was almost tempted to walk over and flick her in the forehead. "It's nothing to be ashamed of. I'm actually quite the bookworm myself."

"Wait, really?!" Blake exclaimed in a rare moment of enthusiasm, dashing over to the copper-haired boy as she continued, "Have you read 'Daylight Hunters?'"

"Have I?! It's my favorite series!" Fox too exclaimed in joy, the two now beginning to converse about various series they'd each read over the years, leaving Ren to wonder why the hell he was even there anymore. Then he realized they were getting pretty passionate about their common hobby and proceeded to wait on standby so that they didn't wreck the complex.

"Wait, how are you able to read if you're blind?"

"Braille, mostly."

 _(around the same time, Yang's POV)_

"So, what do you think?" Coco said as she emerged from the dressing room once again with a brown leather jacket and tight-fitting blue jeans, brown dress shoes, and a brown infinity scarf to complete the outfit.

"Well, you certainly like the color brown." Nora said, earning her an elbow jab, courtesy of Yang, who smirked and said, "Looks good on you, Coco."

"Thank you. Now, who's next?" Coco asked the two. Nora and Yang then looked at each other, and though they wanted to settle it via another arm-wrestling match, they both knew that doing that in here would likely get them kicked out. So, as Coco went back inside to change out of her new outfit, the two settled it with a classic: rock paper scissors. After a few seconds, Yang had won and declared Nora to be Coco's first outfit model, something that neither of them were really looking forward to, evidenced by the fact that Nora cried when she was defeated by Yang.

Coco then came out of the changing room, walked over to a nearby bench, picked up two stacks of clothes, and placed them into the hands of the auburn-haired girl and said, "Try those on in the stacks they're put in, properly, or I swear to you I _will_ come in there and I _will_ dress you myself. Clear?"

"Crystal, mam!" Nora answered in a nervous voice before shutting the door of the dressing room and characteristically began to change rather loudly.

"Well... that was... intimidating." Yang hesitantly said, finishing with a rather blunt enunciation.

Coco turned and scratched the back of her head as she semi-apologized, "Sorry, I just get really worked up about these kinds of things. I'm really into the fashion of hunters. They all look so freaking badass! Plus, it kinda helps me forget..." Coco trailed off, a somber look now adorning her face.

Yang sat forward, now interested in what Coco was hesitating to tell. "C'mon, you can trust me. I won't tell a soul."

"Will you really?" The chocolate-themed girl gave the blonde brawler a disbelieving look.

In response, Yang mimed a lowercase t above the left part of her chest, saying, "Cross my heart."

And Yang meant this promise too. For some reason, she always had a knack for sensing whenever someone was going to say something that was rather important to them, and whenever she'd promised to keep those secrets, not once did she ever break it. Sure, she might've let a few, excusable secrets slip through from time to time, but not **one** that was likely as important as this one.

Coco breathed deeply and sighed, taking off her sunglasses and placing on the left side of her corset as she explained, "I was sixteen going on seventeen when it happened. I told my parents that I wanted to go to Beacon, become a huntress. They were... beyond angry. I mean, I'd seen them angry before, but this was just... I don't remember much of what they were yelling about, mostly just stuff about their company and money." Coco made a bitter, humorless laugh at that. "They tried to word it in a way that made it seem like they were concerned with my wellbeing, but all I knew they were just talking out of their asses to try and get me to stay. When I didn't back down, they... essentially disowned me. I mean, I've still got their name, but once I left for good they cut off all access to them and their money. And this year, they had the gall to offer me a chance to go back to them. On my fucking birthday!" Coco's fist clenched suddenly, and audible strain sounds could be heard from her now enclosed fist. She closed her eyes, took an even deeper breath than before, and exhaled, letting her fingers unfurl as she continued, "I was depressed about it for a while. But eventually, I decided that I didn't care. If they weren't going to help like parents were supposed to, then they could burn along with all that money they seemed to love more than their own daughter. I ended up living it pretty rough for about the next month or so. It taught me how important the little things were, how hard it could be to go without food, how hard it was to earn Lien with your own two hands," she rubbed her left palm with her right thumb, a reminiscent look briefly coming onto her face before she continued, "How hard it was to take care of your own clothes. Getting into Beacon was probably the best thing that ever happened to me, and my team was more of a family to me than my parents ever were. But... it's only because of them I gained the determination to get into Beacon at all. Don't get me wrong, I do hate them. I hate them a lot more than somebody should hate anyone. But if they never... cast me out, I never would've learned more things in a month than I had in my entire life. I never would've met Velvet, or Yatsu, or fallen for Fox. I wouldn't be who I am right now if it wasn't for them.

"So yeah, that's about it. My 'kind of' sob story. " Coco placed her sunglasses back on and asked Yang, "Got any questions?"

"Well... you said your last name was Adel, right?" Yang hesitantly asked, not wishing to push any of Coco's buttons more than they already had been.

"Yep. And yeah, my parents are _those_ Adels."

"Then that means..." Yang's eyes widened in realization of the sacrifice Coco had made for her dream. "… damn. That's... wow. You gave up a lot for this life."

"Yeah, I did. But I don't regret it. It might be a dangerous one, but it's my life." It was at this moment that Nora emerged from the changing room in her new outfit, a pink t-shirt with a black lightning symbol printed on the stomach and a pair of skinny jeans the ran down to her ankles, where a pair of white boots with pink soles and laces adorned her feet. On her arms were two detached pink sleeves that ended around her mid-biceps and started around her wrists. It was so unlike Nora to dress that way, yet Yang also thought that the look kinda suited her in an odd way. She was also being uncharacteristically shy, holding one of her arms in a tight grip while her gaze found to floor oddly fascinating to look at.

"So, uh... not exactly the best looking, huh?" Nora asked hesitantly.

"Hmm... it does seem like something's missing..." Coco gave a quick look to a short-sleeved black jacket on one of the rack wheels, took it off its hanger and handed it to Nora. "Try it with this."

The auburn-haired girl quickly complied, slipping her arms through the sleeves and suddenly feeling much more comfortable than before. Maybe it was because she was showing less skin? Well, it didn't matter anyhow, she seemed much more confident with the jacket on than off. Actually, it brought the whole outfit together.

"Damn Nora! You look badass!" Yang cheered, causing her friend's slight smile to grown into a full-on grin.

"Of course I do! I'm me, after all!" Nora said with all the confidence a certified badass could muster, which, considering her, was likely a lot more than the average person.

"I'll admit, you pull that outfit off rather well. Okay, go and change out of it. Don't worry about the other one, I'll put it back." Coco said with a kind, satisfied smile on her lips. Nora gave a bubbly "Yes mam!" as she zipped back inside the changing room and coming back out a few seconds later with the stack of unused clothes and an unfolded pile of the ones she'd tried on. How was this possible? She's Nora, that's all you need to know.

"Well, it's your turn now, Sunshine." Coco handed Yang her own stack of clothes, the blonde brawler sighing slightly as she took them from her outstretched arms and opened the dressing room, stepping inside and closing off the outside before slipping into the new outfit the aviator sporting huntress had given her.

 _(a few minutes later, Dabi's POV)_

"Thanks," Dabi said to the vendor, pocketing the three-meter lengths of chain that he'd just purchased for a certain, bubbly psychopath he knew and tolerated. He really didn't want to buy more flick open knives for her, so she was going to use these to keep track of the ones she already had or Oum dammit he was going to tie them onto her wrists himself.

Readjusting his hood and briefly snapping open his mask for fresh air before placing it back on, Dabi turned the corner of the stall and began to walk in the same direction of the hideout he'd come from. He'd have to check for tails in a few minutes.

And then he saw a familiar yet foreign face. A curled copper-haired, lightly freckled skinned, green-eyed girl with a pink bow in her hair. The bow that... he gave to her...

 _Penny!_

Throwing all caution to the wind, Dabi almost ran to her, eager to see his friend again after so many months. But he restrained himself, carefully approaching her before lightly tapping on her left shoulder. Penny's form almost snapped in his direction, an infectious smile coming over her face as she said, "Salutations, good sir!"

Dabi was... startled. The Penny he remembered wasn't nearly this boisterous. Sure, she was very kind, but she was also very timid and shy. However, he simply wrote this off as a change in personality. A lot could change in nine months, after all. Hesitantly, he regained his voice and asked, "… Penny?"

The android in disguise tilted her head in minor confusion, replying, "Yes, that is my name. Why do you ask? And how do you know it? I do not believe I told you."

Dabi then asked the question he was dreading the most to ask. "Do you... remember me?"

.

..

…

"… I am sorry, but I have no memory of you."

That was a shot in the heart for him. Dabi's eyes lost the light they'd just barely regained. She didn't even remember who he was. "Sorry to bother you," was all he said before turning and walking in the opposite direction, now even more depressed than the day his mother died.

"… w-w-wait!"

Dabi glanced back as Penny grabbed the lower part of his jacket, her grip far stronger than that of the frail girl he remembered. Her dainty hand trembled as she continued, "I feel... like something is telling me that you are familiar. I don't know what it is, but it's insisting that I know you somehow. Who... who are you?"

That was the moment he realized it. This wasn't Penny. At least, not the one he knew. He did it. That crazy bastard actually went through with that crazy experiment. He turned back to Penny, a confused and oddly desperate look adorning her face, sighing slightly before he answered, "We... we were close, at one point. You likely don't remember, but I'm the one that gave you this." He pointed to the pink bow in the top part of her hair. "You were my friend. My only friend."

"But who are you?"

Dabi turned once more, walking forwards slightly before glancing back and saying, "I'm the guy who owes you his life," before continuing on, leaving an even more confused Penny in his wake with only one thought burning in his mind.

 _Stein... when I get my hands on you, you're gonna pay for everything you've done. To me and to her._

 _(4:46 pm, approaching Torino's apartment building, Yang's POV)_

"Remind me again why you bought so many sets of clothes?" Yang asked as Coco somehow managed to balance all her shopping bags in one hand while carrying Cream & Sugar in the other. The beret sporting girl simply replied, "I liked the outfits, so I bought them. Besides, I've had a while to practice balancing bags. It was pretty hard at first."

"Well duh! That stack of bags is almost as high as a one-story building!" Nora commented on the height of Coco's current burden.

They then entered the building, briefly noting that no one was present before they placed their respective clothes sets in their rooms. They reconvened in the lobby to find a note placed on the door of the fridge, which read, **WENT TO BEACH. TRAINING.**

"Well, that's pretty vague," Coco said as she pulled the note off the fridge. It wasn't signed, though she recognized the rough and hasty handwriting to be Fox's. Yang, curious to see what the others were up to, said, "You wanna head over?"

"Sure, I'm game."

"Me too!" Nora bounced down the staircase as she said this.

"Although I would recommend bringing those swimsuits I picked out for you two. We are heading to the beach after all."

 _(seven minutes later, Vale Municipal Beach, Yang's POV)_

What they found when they arrived there was... honestly both terrifying and confusing at the same time. What they expected to find were Team STIK and the other members of RWBY, CFVY, and JNPR, only to find that Team TAKT, as well as Sun and Penny, were there as well, helping to haul the trash that littered the once empty but beautiful sands off the beach. All of them, with the exception of Penny, were wearing either workout clothes or some form of swimwear.

To be more specific, Ruby, Weiss, Velvet, Tenya and Ren were scouring the beach for spare bits of trash, the rose-themed and spectacled members of the five being far faster and surprisingly more efficient about it than latter participants, while Yatsu, Kirishima, Penny, Jaune, Tokoyami, and Sun gathered the larger pieces of trash that the others couldn't lift, the former three using their raw strength while the latter three used their semblances. Actually, Jaune himself wasn't moving, instead sitting in a meditative stance with his hands clasped together, alongside Sun, as a now fully realized and armored Lancelot, assisted occasionally by Sun's clones, lifted large pieces that he otherwise wouldn't have been able to. Tokoyami did something similar with Shadow but remained standing and seemed to feel more of a burden from using his semblance than Jaune was at that moment. They seemed to have worked out a system, gather the larger portions at the bottom of the pile, then sprinkle the top with medium and smaller sized pieces.

As for the others, Blake was teetering the edges of the water with Tsuyu, both donning their respective black and light green one-piece swimsuits as they scanned for any trash that may have fallen back in the water. Pyrrha did the same, trying to use her polarity to sense any metal within the water as she wore her own red, two-piece swimsuit that showed more cleavage than her hunter outfit, though Yang had a feeling that was to get the attention of a certain blonde knight. Fox was in the water as well, his semblance giving him a searching advantage over the others there, even Pyrrha with her polarity. He wore a pair of burnt orange swim trunks, leaving his chest exposed and causing Coco to stare and practically drool for several seconds. As for the others...

"Dammit Deku, hurry up! I can't wait all day!" Bakugo stomped his foot impatiently as Izuku lifted one of the piles of trash over his head, the trademark signs of coiling green electricity and blackened whites of his eyes giving away the use of Full Cowl. She also noticed that the lower half of his face was covered by the half mask she'd given to him all those months ago. Though this was all she noticed before she started staring through his drenched short at his surprisingly muscular body.

"These things are really heavy, alright?" Izuku said as he set the pile down, deactivating his powers and placing the mask back onto his neck as Bakugo began using his explosions to compact the trash.

"Thanks for the hand, Shoto!" Mina said as she melted Shoto's pile down and together, which he'd dragged up there by turning gravity to his advantage. That and the ice pillars made it much easier.

"No problem." The half and half leader said with a smile on his face, melting the leftovers of the ice pillars he'd used.

.

..

…

"...what did we miss?" Nora asked out loud to no one in particular.

"A whole hell of a lot," Torino replied, almost appearing next to them. How was that physically possible? It didn't matter at the moment, as Torino explained just what had happened over the course of the day.

 _(7:09 am, Vale Municipal Beach, Izuku's POV)_

 _"What the hell?!" Team STIK synched at the massive piles of garbage that now lined the beach. It was almost as cluttered as when Toshinori had originally assigned Izuku to clear the beach side, and that was done over the course of ten long, hellish months. The team was_ _wearing their respective workout getups, Bakugo wearing a black tank top and crimson shorts, Tenya wearing a white tank top and bright navy-blue shorts, Shoto with a white tank top and black sweat pants and Izuku with a white t-shirt and black shorts._

 _"Huh. This place is a bit more cluttered than I thought it'd be." Torino commented as he stroked his short beard._

 _"A bit?!" Tenya yelled. "This place is absolutely filthy! And how?! It was clean a week ago!"_

 _"Well, it doesn't really matter, anyhow. Now, you are all being tasked with cleaning this entire beach-"_

 _"ARE YOU INSANE, OLD MAN?! WE'RE NOT GONNA CLEAN THIS ENTIRE THING IN A DA-" Bakugo yelled characteristically loudly before Torino zipped over and whacked him over the head with Shinboku landing as he continued, "Never call me that. Since this place is so damn cluttered, I have an idea to make the process faster._

 _"I'll let you use your semblances for this. It's about time you learned how to stretch them to their absolute limits, anyways."_

 _This made STIK look briefly shocked before the look slowly trickled into joy and excitedness. If they could use their powers to speed up the process, possibly work out a system of use, then they'd be able to clean the beach by the end of the day. It'd be a killer workout, but it'd be worth it._

 _"Now then, let's get to work!"_

 _(an hour later, Izuku's POV)_

Come on, Izuku! You can do this. Just imagine the ocean and dive into it! _Izuku tried the best he could to channel more power from One for All into his body. After his meditation dream, his view on what it One for All had changed from the microwave to an entire ocean's worth of potential and power, though he still felt unworthy of it. He found that 'diving' into the ocean he'd seen in meditation made the process easier and figured that if he did it enough it would eventually become second nature. He was currently pushing his upper limits, going from percentile to percentile. 18%. 19%._

 _"Full Cowl, 20%!" Izuku cried as his pupils burned a bright emerald color and the whites of his eyes turned black. He put his arms under the massive pile of thrash that was twice as wide as he was and three times his own height, and, after finding some stable grip holds, lifted the mass over his head before tossing it back onto the shoreline. He then promptly dropped to the sand back first, disengaging Full Cowl and panting incessantly._

 _"You sure you're gonna be alright doing that? We're supposed to be training, not killing ourselves." Shoto said as he slid his pile upwards, where Bakugo began to compact them both into smaller, more manageable piles. It gave his hands a workout, that was for sure._

 _"I'm not sure. I've tried pushing the upper limits, and I've managed to get to about 20%, but... it feels like if I go too fast, I'll break my bones just by moving." Izuku sat up he said this, now having regained his breath._

 _"Hmm... maybe make a physical trigger for you absolute strongest?" Shoto thought out loud._

 _"How would that work?" Izuku asked his leader, his interest now fully peaked._

 _"Well, you say that you're imagining yourself diving into an ocean to do this, right?"_

 _"Yeah, but what does that have to do with anything?" Izuku inclined his head in slight confusion._

 _"Maybe if you associate it with a physical action, the second nature process will become easier. Maybe use that half mask that Yang gave you?"_

 _Izuku's eyes widened in realization. The mask had always been worn around his neck; he'd hardly taken it off since the incident with Stain finished. Why hadn't he actually used it the way it'd been designed? It had a built-in air filter, so actually putting it on wasn't the issue, but now he could use it properly!_

 _"Thanks, Shoto!" The green haired boy said to his leader before hopping to his feet once more, now using his mask to trigger Full Cowl's current maximum capacity far faster than he would've otherwise. It didn't up the time limit, but it was starting to make the process itself easier._

 _(one hour later, Shoto's POV)_

 _"Whoa, what're they doing? It looks so freaking manly and fun!" Shoto turned when he heard Kirishima bellow this, finding him and his team standing at the edge of the sands. They were all wearing street clothes, the aforementioned Wolverine faunus wearing a black tank top with a red R emblazoned on the front with a pair of jean shorts to complete the outfit. His leader wore a black,_ long-sleeved _shirt and gray pants while his best friend and favorite prankster wore a black tank top with the word 'Pinky' emblazoned across her chest, accompanied by a pair of jean short shorts. Tsuyu simply wore a green jacket and white t-shirt with a pair of form-fitting sweatpants. They all carried a bag or two, showing that they had been shopping prior to this encounter._

 _"Training_ , _" Shoto replied, launching his next pile up the steps for Bakugo to compact._

 _"Cool! Can we join?" Mina asked in a bubbly tone._

 _"You may_ , _" Torino answered them as_ _a sadistic smile crossed his lips. "But, keep in mind that once you do, I will not allow you to leave until the entire beach is cleaned."_

 _"Okay." Team TAKT synched without a moment of hesitation._

 _._

 _.._

 _…_

 _"Huh. Thought you'd be a lot more terrified." Torino stated._

 _"We needed to train some more anyway." Tokoyami and Tsuyu said simultaneously, causing Kirishima and Mina to nod in agreement before they hopped down to the beach floor and began to help with the cleaning._

 _"Guess it's a good thing we bought those swimsuits." Tsuyu thought aloud, followed by her characteristic ribbit._

 _(two hours later, Tenya's POV)_

 _Tenya, after three full hours of cleaning the beachside, was ready for a break. Even with the added help of Team TAKT, the day was still going by rather slowly, and he felt the need to rest his bones for a few hours, at least. Ironically, this was also the same moment that Torino decided to call break hour._

 _"That was exhausting. And we're not even halfway done yet." Tenya said as he sat against the stone wall at the back end of the beach, his legs crossed as he began observing just how much more they had to do._

 _"Shut up and rest up_ , _four eyes." Bakugo simply replied as he sat back against the wall with his legs splayed next to his comparatively composed teammate. This was also when their stomachs decided to simultaneously rumble._

 _"Do you wish to acquire some food?" Tenya asked his partner._

 _"No need." They glanced up to see that Jaune, Yatsu, and Pyrrha were all carrying bags of food with them. Ruby, Velvet, and Weiss were doing the same, though they'd already dispersed to go and give food to the others._

 _"Torino called ahead, said to get you guys some food." Jaune landed next to the two partners, handing them each a bag of what Tenya confirmed to be fast food burgers. He ate his as cleanly as he could, though his direwolf partner simply didn't care for manners and practically inhaled it within two bites, then finding that there was more than one in his bag before he devoured that one as well._

 _"Thank you for the food." Tenya bowed slightly towards the blonde knight, who said, "No problem," before looking out at the work they still had to do. "Damn. That is a lot of trash."_

 _"Yes, it is."_

 _"Hmm... need a hand?"_

"That would be much appreciated. Although, and I don't mean any offense by this, _you're not exactly the strongest member on your team."_

 _"None taken. Besides, I've got a way to lift some of the heavier pieces." Jaune crossed his legs and clasped his hands together, briefly flashing white before the ghostly, fully armored figure of Lancelot appeared kneeling before his master, then standing and asking,_ **"What is your command, master?"**

 _"We're gonna start helping to clean the beach in a bit. Just thought I'd give you a heads up." Jaune answered his Fable without opening his eyes._

 **"*Sigh* Did you really have to wake me up just to tell me that?"**

 _"Well, you don't really sleep anyway."_

 **"True enough."**

 _Lancelot then faded back into the air, Jaune casually opening his bag and biting into his burger, never noticing that Tenya's jaw had practically hit the floor._

 _(a few minutes later, Ren's POV)_

Why are they eating that food? It's incredibly unhealthy. _Ren thought to himself as he observed the others eating the fast food hamburgers, currently munching on his own, almost entirely green salad._

 _(a few minutes later, Sun's POV)_

 _"C'mon, Neptune! You've gotta get over it eventually."_

 _"Look, I'm just... not... feeling it, okay? Also, I am not afraid of water, and have no idea what you are talking about!" The goggle-sporting boy objected._

 _"It's just a little-"_

 _"No! I don't feel like going!" Neptune zoomed back towards Vale, leaving a very confused group of trainees behind him._

 _"So... need any help?"_

 _(present time, Yang's POV)_

"And that's about it." Torino finished explained.

"… well I guess it's a good thing we brought those swimsuits," Coco said as she walked towards the changing stalls at the far side of the beach. Yang and Nora glanced at each other, both realized they didn't have anything better to do, and followed Coco to the stalls, helping the others to clean the beach by dinner.

 **A/N: And that's about it. Thank you all for reading! I hope you enjoyed it! Also, there's this:**

 **This isn't something I've ever actually done before, so forgive me if I make a few slip ups here and there. Also, SPOILERS! I am going to be talking about Volume 5 of RWBY and all its episodes. ALL OF THEM! If you have not seen the entire Volume and still want to go in blind, do that NOW! So, before any of you go and complain in the reviews, remember: YOU! HAVE! BEEN! WARNED!**

 **Also, the entire Volume is available to watch right now on YouTube. Don't worry, I can wait. These are just words expressing an opinion on a page after all. I'm not offended. *sniff***

 **Now, with that out of the way, let's get to talking about the actual Volume. I will say that it's certainly been a mixed bag for a lot of people. There are plenty of good things about it, the fights are getting better, the characters interactions are very believable, and there was clarification and more information on Aura and Semblances that was either really vague or we simply didn't have before. The biggest complaint most people have about this volume is the fact that there's so much exposition dumping. And it's not all bad, either. Some of the information they gave actually had some much-needed context. But most of it was just stuff that we already knew or confirmation for things we inferred with the information that they already gave us. I mean, it's nice that they confirmed a lot of things, but they could've had it take up less time than it did.**

 **The other thing most people had a problem with was the handling of Adam's character, which I can't exactly blame them for. He started out this Volume just fine, being the same cold, logical, sociopathic badass he always was. Hell, he killed Sienna Khan! I mean, it was a wasted potential plot point, and her voice actor gave an awesome performance, and a lot of effort went into her character design, but that's beside the point. Adam seemed the only villain who could do something that evil and make you wonder what the world of Remnant did to him to make him that way! Well, other than Cinder (speaking of which, Miles, Kerry, can we have some fucking context on her backstory please?!).**

 **For the first few episodes, Adam was goddamn terrifying. And then RT seemed to just drop the ball for him during the Fall of Haven. I mean, come on! He might 'love' Blake, but I'm pretty damn sure he wouldn't be that stupid!**

 **However, I loved Blake this Volume. Specifically, during the last episode. It's nice to see that she's not letting Adam control her thoughts like he used to. Plus, the fact that she knew him well enough to know that going after him was practically asking for death is definitely growth on her part. I really liked the interactions with her and Sun this Volume as well. I don't think they're gonna get together, at least not right now, but it's definitely a possibility. However, this does not mean that Bumblebee is out of the running just yet, though if it is planned for canon I don't think it'll be a thing for a while. And yes, the Menagerie Arc definitely had its fair share of problems, and it dragged a lot more than it needed to, but I will admit that the climax was pretty satisfying. Plus, that fight scene with Blake and Ilia was f* #ing awesome! Speaking of...**

 **Ilia has quickly become a fan favorite, and I can definitely see why. Not only because she's the first confirmed LGBT character (yes!), but also because her struggle is genuinely relatable. Learning that something or someone you used to have faith in aren't as good as you might've thought they were can be pretty world-shaking, and she herself said that she wasn't sure what to do once she learned about that. She was torn between the organization that trained and raised her and her best friend who was trying to do the right thing while also being true to her own morals. That's not exactly an easy decision to make. She's not my favorite character, but she's pretty high up on the list.**

 **The Haven Arc was... alright. I mean, it wasn't bad, but it could've been better. Oscar was probably my favorite out of the bunch (his interactions with Ruby were just so goddamn cute! Before you ask, yes, I do ship RoseGarden, and before any of you say that 'Oscar's too young for Ruby,' I will take it upon myself to remind you that Ruby is still two years younger than Weiss). I wish we had more time with him and less time with Ozpin. No, not Ozpin in Oscar's body, I mean the actual Oscar! And I get it, it's supposed to be a pretty big deal that Ozpin's alive again, but we know that now. There's no more shock value. So for the love of god, give the actual Oscar more screen time, please!**

 **Yang's pre-Haven Arc was pretty good, probably the best after Weiss' pre-Haven Arc. I like that she was only trying to find Raven to save herself time in finding her sister, and the reunion with her and Weiss was really heartwarming and almost made me cry. Still, it would be nice to see that the loss of her arm affected her more than just giving her shakes. And yeah, she is fighting smarter than she used to, and not using her semblance nearly as much, but I don't think that even Yang can get over losing an arm that quickly. Four to six months is not that long to recover from something like that. Often times it can take a year at best or even longer or possibly never at worst.**

 **Weiss definitely showed that she could kick ass without the rest of her team to back her up. The fact that they showed she could've broken out of that cage the Branwen bandits placed her in at any time shows just how much more independent of her father she's become, at least for me. She just decided to break out subtly. Also, who else thought that tiny knight summon was absolutely adorable?**

 **Cinder and the rest of Salem's cohorts could've used some more screen time. I get that they're supposed to be creeping in on Haven, but that's not really what ended up happening. They stormed the castle, and, as Watts would put it, they did not do it quietly. Some more time with Mercury and Emerald would do probably do the show a lot of favors.**

 **Also, holy shit that last fight with Cinder and Raven was fucking awesome! That was the type of fight that RWBY is known for! Let's see more of those in the future, please?**

 **All in all, it wasn't the best Volume in the series, but it did what it set out to accomplish. I personally give it a 7.7/10.**

 **Next Chapter: Feb 25th**

 **Seeya in the next one!**


	25. Memories and Legacies

**A/N: This was definitely something that made me feel pretty sad, especially the song I used. I guarantee that you're probably going to cry by the end, unless you're made of stone or something of that sort. *Sigh* Well, if there's one thing RWBY definitely hammered into my brain, it was to keep moving forward no matter how hard things get.**

 **Also, over 200 favorites! Yes! Holy crap! Thank you guys so much! I hope to keep on meeting your expectations. I also hope you like the not so subtle references to Game of Thrones in this one. I absolutely love the characters, especially the Stark family. Well... what's left of them, anyways. And yes, I did name Izuku's grandparents after main characters from Persona 5. I love that game.**

 **Enjoy the chapter, everyone!**

 **Disclaimer: I do not own RWBY or My Hero Academia. They belong to Monty Oum, Kohei Horikoshi, and their respective publishing companies. Please support the official releases.**

 **I do not own the cover image**

Chapter 25: Memories and Legacies

"Wait, if your parents cut off all your access to their money, then how are you able to afford all those clothes, let alone your ammo." Yang asked her beret wearing upper classman while they ate breakfast.

"When we got the green light for unsupervised missions, I nearly worked myself half to death to get as much money as I could." Coco took another bite of her eggs as the bustling conversations at the dining table continued around them.

What time is it? Context time! After Coco, Yang, and Nora had changed into their swimsuits, they helped out wherever they were needed, since most parts of the system already had more than enough people in them. To get things done faster, Yang and Nora mostly helped to move the piles up and off the beach while Coco mostly helped some of the others dive into the water. Eventually, they found a few rather large pieces of trash that the former two had to help haul out. Their suits were all one-pieces, being dark violet, bubblegum pink, and chocolate brown respectively and proved to be quite useful whenever they were needed to help dive. Yang's showed off her figure rather well, and she could've sworn she saw Izuku accidentally staring at her a few times before realizing just what he was doing and snapping himself out of his daze. Not that she was completely guilt free, she often gave him a few looks whenever she got the chance. Well, that and she... kinda liked it when he looked at her that way, even if it wasn't intentional. She also saw Nora try, and fail, to get Ren's attention in a similar way, but he was too focused on cleaning the beach to notice, much to the copper-haired girl's disappointment. Coco on the other hand... well... Yang hadn't seen her and Fox after they finished dinner since they went upstairs and did... something... it involved a lot of moaning and seemed to make Velvet blush a very dark shade of red. **(A/N: You all know what they did. I'm not spelling it out for you. Well, I technically did, but still)**

"Well, if you made that much money with low-level missions, I can't wait for my team's no supervision green light!" Yang punched her right fist into her left palm to emphasize her excitedness. She then grabbed a cup of water and began to chug it, feeling rather thirsty that morning in particular.

"You'll still have to wait a few months, but yeah, it's pretty exciting. Also, were you staring at speedy yesterday?" Coco asked with a knowing smirk on her face.

This almost immediately caused Yang to do a spit take and briefly cough before she regained her breath and tried to reply, "I-I-I... erm... uh... you... saw that?"

"Hey, there's no shame in checking the guy out. He _is_ pretty ripped."

"Coco!" Yang punched the aviator sporting girl in the shoulder, practically burning red in embarrassment. This only caused her to chuckle and, after a few seconds, she replied, "Don't worry, your secret's safe with me. Besides, it's good to like him for his character, but that doesn't mean you can't like the way he looks."

Meanwhile, with Izuku and Shoto...

"Look man, it's alright to look at her that way. You didn't start liking her that way for her beauty, but that doesn't mean you can't appreciate it."

"But I didn't want to act perverted, and I ended up doing that anyway." Izuku slammed his head into the table once again, a visible dent now forming around the impact point. His breakfast sat next to his head, untouched, and a glass of water sat in front of him in the same fashion.

"*Sigh* Dude, for the fourth time, no one's judging. Look, she _is_ alluring, but you need to get over this. Besides, I'm fairly sure she was checking you out too."

"Pfft! Yeah, right."

Shoto never dropped his deadpan stare, even as he drank the entirety of his water glass. Izuku, though slowly, widened his eyes in surprise, and said, "You can't possibly be serious."

"Dead serious." Shoto put his cup back down and began to eat the remainder of his breakfast.

.

..

…

"… you're messing with me." Izuku dug into his meal to try and avoid the conversation from going any further.

"I'm not," Shoto said as the rest of the table began finishing their meals and Izuku wolfed down his.

 _(thirty minutes later, Izuku's POV)_

Izuku's scroll began to vibrate as they were cleaning the dishes from breakfast. Briefly excusing himself from the sinks, he answered the scroll, "Hello?"

 _"Hi, Izuku! How are you?"_

"I'm alright mom. Why're you calling?"

 _"You don't remember?"_

"Remember wha-" Izuku suddenly stopped in realization, his eyes widening for emphasis. He then spoke once more into the scroll with a far more subdued voice, "I'm sorry mom. I... forgot."

 _"It's alright, Izuku. I don't blame you, what with all the crazy things that have been happening lately. We'll be going to Patch tomorrow morning. Is that alright?"_

"Yeah. I'll see you then. Love you, mom."

"Love you too, Izuku."

She then hung up the call, Izuku slowly placing his scroll back into his pocket and walking back to the sinks, his face now donning a somber look.

 _(three hours later, the basement ring, general POV)_

Izuku overreached one of his jabs, giving Yang the opportunity to make up for a missed strike of her own by grabbing the outstretched appendage and give him a straight elbow jab to the gut that she enhanced with Ember Celica. The resulting force nearly sent Izuku into the steel wall at opposite end of the room. The two had agreed to a hand to hand spar just a few minutes earlier, which was why Izuku was only using Cirrus and Stratus. He could've sworn Tempest hummed in jealousy. Moving on-

Izuku promptly launched himself off the wall and made a sweeping side kick towards the side of her head, which the blonde brawler blocked with her forearm. The green haired boy anticipated this and dropped from his elevated stance into a crouch to strike at her stomach. Yang's aura dulled the blow, though, allowing her to grip Izuku's arm and flip him behind her in a slamming strike.

Izuku anticipated this, angling his body to the point where he could counter her throw, landing on his feet with his arm in a rather awkward alignment. Yang capitalized on this by wrapping her right leg around his arm and placing her left shin on his neck, using her weight to drive Izuku onto his back. A few seconds later, he tapped the blonde brawler's left calf twice. He was tapping out.

He rarely tapped out this early.

Yang knew this fact from all the sparring they'd done previously and, after getting off of Izuku's neck to let him breathe, offered him a hand up. The blazer wearing inheritor gladly accepted the gesture, getting pulled to his feet a bit faster than usual (Yang had gotten quite ripped over the past few weeks) before the blonde brawler asked, "You alright, Greenie? It's not like you to tap out this soon."

"I'm fine," Izuku simply stated with a shaky smile as he exited the ring, briefly exchanging a glance with Bakugo on the way up. As the ashen blonde walked down the steps, a realized look came over his face.

Yang, noticing this, asked, "Do you know what's up with Greenie?"

"What's it to you, blondie?" Bakugo answered her question with another, giving his signature snarl as he did so.

"Don't call me that, Mr. McSplodySplode. You're blonde yourself," Yang quipped back without her signature teasing smile, though the comment still angered Bakugo to a degree.

Bakugo sighed as he dragged his open left hand down his face, trying to calm himself before he asked, "Do you really want to know?"

"I'd like to help if that's a possibility." Yang held no deceit in her eyes as she said that.

"Then ask Deku yourself." Yang started for the basement exit, only for Bakugo to grip her shoulder, stopping her in her tracks before he continued, "Actually, don't. If you have anything to say to him, say it soon. He's...

"… he's not gonna be around for a while." Bakugo finished as he moved into the ring, grabbing a spare punching bag and absolutely laying into it while he left Yang both concerned for Izuku and confused about what was soon to happen.

 _(the next day, 6:08 am, outside the apartment complex, Izuku's POV)_

Izuku wasn't wearing his hunter's outfit as he normally would, instead wearing a green t-shirt under a blue zip-up hoodie, accompanied by a pair of black cargo pants with Cirrus and Stratus on his feet. Tempest was strapped to his back, for the just in case scenario that they ran into any Grimm on the island of Patch. While Cirrus and Stratus were more than enough to get the job done, Tempest almost seemed to insist that it be taken with him.

His mother stood across from him with both her hands crossed in front of her, her purse hanging from her left shoulder. He much taller had he gotten since he saw her last? This thought was interrupted when she asked, "Are you ready to go, Izuku?"

"Yeah," Izuku said without a hint of enthusiasm, trying the best he could to smile back as they walked in silence to the docks, though his mother knew that it was forced.

 _(one hour later, the island of Patch, Izuku's POV)_

Izuku hurled his recently eaten breakfast into the trash can at the entrance of the Patch Island docks, his mother patting him on the back to make the process easier. After a little while, Izuku managed to stop hurling, briefly drinking some water and spitting it into the same trashcan to rid his mouth of the dreadful aftertaste.

"I hate boats," Izuku said.

"I know. I wish we could take an airship, but you know we can't afford the airfare."

"I know. Doesn't mean I have to like boats."

His mother chuckled at this. "True enough."

They walked the oak tree littered paths of the island town, briefly spotting a few children playing on a small playground in the distance. Izuku had a split-second flash back to one of the times Bakugo had bullied him in their younger days, when he'd decided to pick a fight with a kid who couldn't even defend himself. Izuku stepped in to help but... well, he was still a Fractured at the time, and Bakugo had had his Aura unlocked at a very early age. It was hardly what one could call a fair fight.

However, that had been nearly fourteen years ago, and they'd been in Vale, not Patch. Izuku moved his eyes back to the path in front of him, following the last few blocks of the trail leading to their destination, never noticing a child hiding behind a tree whom stared at the playground, a loneliness he once knew haunting their eyes.

 _(fifteen minutes later, the home of Izuku's grandparents, Izuku's POV)_

The walk to the house, as it had been for the past sixteen years, or at least the ones Izuku could rightly remember, was no less intimidating. And for good reason as well. The house they stood in front of, while it wasn't all that large, was a call back to the times of ancient eastern Mistral, with grid-patterned fusuma doors dotting the structure and a curved, upturned tiled roof that only began what was a rather old yet sturdy looking structure.

"What's wrong, Izuku? You're not scared, are you?" His mother noticed Izuku's nervous face, causing him to almost snap backward and reply, "N-n-n-not of the building."

As if on cue, the door slid open to reveal a man in a dark green, Hoyeki-Ho robe that left most of his chest exposed, though it still rested on his shoulders and the hem only went down to his ankles, a pair of geta sandals completing the outfit. On his head was a mop of gray hair tied back in a ponytail with a stray bang just barely touching his nose, and small but vibrant brown eyes.

"Ah! Grandson and daughter in law are here!" The rather large man said with an eastern accent as he gave a hearty laugh before he lifted the two off the ground in a rather tight bear hug. Well, maybe that was the wrong statement, his size dwarfed that of most bears... it was also the thing Izuku dreaded the second most coming here. Moving on!

"G-grandpa... can't... breathe..."

"Oh! Sorry, I forget your bodies more fragile than mine." The large man, now confirmed as Izuku's grandfather, let them both down to the ground, allowing them fresh air once more.

"Many thanks to both of you for coming again this year," said a voice from inside the household. She was as old as Izuku's grandfather, though they'd both aged rather gracefully, with her mid-back length gray hair hanging loose with black eyes and a kind smile. She wore a green, tightly tied, short sleeved kimono with a pair of blue slippers on her feet.

"No, thank you again for letting us stay here all these years, Makoto." Izuku's mother bowed her head slightly her respect for the pair clear as day.

"No need. I'll prepare some tea for you. Ryuji-" she turned to the large man, "-be sure to clean up the dojo."

"Yes, yes. I do it." Ryuji said in a bland tone, though his lips carried a small smile as he placed a chaste kiss on his wife's lips as he slipped off his geta sandals, carrying them with him towards the back of the house.

Makoto beckoned her grandson and daughter in law inside the house, the two taking off their shoes, or in Izuku's case combat boots, before they stepped onto the proper wooden floor. The living room had a single table meant to seat six people, though there were only four chairs seated on either of the longer sides of the oaken colored rectangle.

His mother stepped into the kitchen after Makoto to help prepare the tea, the elder woman not thinking to object since she knew his mother only meant well. Izuku looked for a place to set Tempest down without disturbing the aesthetic of the house, but he couldn't find anywhere that fit the bill. It was also around this time that Ryuji came back into the house through the back door, saying, "Let me. I have place for weapon."

"O-okay. Thanks, grandpa." Izuku said as he hesitantly handed over Tempest, briefly remembering the last time someone tried to lift Tempest and the weapon simply wouldn't move. These worries were proved unnecessary as Ryuji lifted the bastard sword/scythe with little effort, though he did comment, "Your weapon heavy. That is good. You stronger than look, grandson."

"Oh, it's nothing really," Izuku said, not really ever feeling the weapon's true weight all that often. He'd felt it before, back when he first began to use it when he'd called it Gale, but eventually, he was so used to swinging it around that it hardly felt like any weight was attached to the weapon at all. That and Tempest would only let him and others it deemed worthwhile wield it without severely hindering them, with the exceptions of people who were at least as strong as Ryuji. Actually, what the heck allowed him to pull the weapon to him back during the Breach? He'd tried it a few times before, but how he'd done it still eluded him.

These thoughts were pushed to the back of his mind as Ryuji stepped back outside the house, taking Tempest to the dojo to be hung up for the time being. It visibly hummed and glowed, clearly objecting to the prospect of being taken all the way to Patch only to be put away in a shed. Ryuji felt the hum and glanced down at the weapon, only to have it go silent and for the glow to die down. The burly man simply wrote it off on his slowly failing hearing and continued towards the dojo, Izuku sighing in relief as he did so. Questions about Tempest's level of consciousness would not be good for him at that moment.

After a few more minutes, the tea was prepared, and the family sat at the aforementioned table across from each other, Izuku and his mother on one side while Ryuji and Makoto sat on the other. In the center of the table was a green teapot, with steam rolling out from the top of it, and clay cups full of green tea sat in front of all of them.

"So, you're attending Beacon now?" Makoto asked as she casually sipped from her cup, briefly closing her eyes as she did so.

"Yeah. I mean, it's very exciting challenging, but it's certainly never boring. Well, except for Port's classes." Izuku said vaguely, not wishing to boast about his exploits.

However, that was what Ryuji was there for. "Ha! Certainly not! I see accomplishments on news! Stopped Huntsman Hunter and defended Vale during Breach! You make great huntsman, one way!"

"Dear, it's day." Makoto corrected her husband with an amused tone.

"So it is. Sorry, Central Common not easy for me." He apologized to Izuku and his mother.

"No need. Again, thank you so much for letting us stay here. And for the tea as well." His mother said as she too took a little sip of the tea in front of her.

Makoto chuckled at Izuku's mother's overt humbleness, "No need to thank us so much, Inko. You're family, and more than welcome here anytime."

"Anyhow... grandson... you-"

"Grandpa... please, don't," Izuku said with a bit more firmness than he'd meant to use. "Sorry."

"No need, no need. Should not have asked again." Ryuji said with a regretful tone, the conversation taking a different turn before they could linger on the unspoken yet still painful subject.

 _(the next day, 7:27 am, Ryuji & Makoto's house, Izuku's POV)_

The freckled boy awoke from the same dream he always had when he visited his grandparent's house; the one that held the father he never truly knew. He could hardly see the man's silhouette, mostly outlined in black with a similar hairstyle to Izuku's, though he knew the color was different, but the thing that stood out the most to him was the only thing they still had left of his father; his dark green, caped hood.

Shaking off the drowsiness, Izuku stretched his arms and rubbed his eyes, and stood from his futon to stretch the rest of his body. He then straightened the blankets and pulled on a green t-shirt and dark grey sweatpants, exiting the room as he walked down the empty, still mostly unawoken hallway to the dining room, his bare feet making nary a sound as he moved.

He found Makoto making breakfast, who noticed him coming in and said, "Hello, Izuku. How are you this morning?"

"I... I'm alright," Izuku said with rare hesitation. Makoto noticed this, and responded, "Did you have that dream again?"

"…"

"You did," Makoto sighed. "If this is about what Ryuji asks you every year, it's not because he's trying to hurt you. He wants to help you, but it's not exactly easy for him either. But... I understand if you're not ready for it-"

"It's not that," Izuku said, not quite realizing that he'd interrupted his grandmother. "I... I'm not worthy of it. I don't think that I ever will be. I want to be, but... I'm not. I don't know if I'm the kind of person he'd want me to be. Until I know for sure... then I'm not worthy."

Makoto stared at him for several seconds with widened eyes, then closing them as she shook her head, smiled slightly and said, "You really are becoming more like Hisashi, you know."

That surprised Izuku, whose turn it now was to look completely shocked. His grandparents rarely talked about Hisashi at all, and even when they did it was always rather vague. Even his mom, no matter how much he'd asked when he was younger, never spoke much about his father. The only concrete hint he'd ever received was when he was ten. _The first time your father and I met, we were under a tree just like this one._

Izuku shook himself out of the daze and tried to change the subject. "What's for breakfast?"

"Haven't made it yet. Want to help me?"

"Sure," Izuku said as he walked over to the kitchen sink, washing his hands thoroughly before he began to help Makoto make breakfast.

 _(8:08 am, the park, Izuku's POV)_

Izuku sat against one of the several oak trees that dotted the landscape of Patch. In front of him was the same playground he'd seen yesterday, with the same kids from before playing in the same general area. He'd left soon after he and Makoto made and ate breakfast, excusing himself soon after to walk the island again to distract himself from the grief that he could never shake when he was near... the shrine. Anything would've been better to think about at this moment.

 _"Come on, Deku. You know you can't beat me. If you don't even have a quirk, you don't stand a snowball's chance in hell!"_ he recalled Bakugo saying in their younger days, a brief flash appearing before his eyes as he remembered getting the absolute crap beaten out of him.

… well, anything but _that_.

It was also at this time that he noticed the kids from the playground had suddenly stopped playing, instead looking over at something, or someone, within the tree line. It wasn't Izuku, he knew that much, since they were looking to his left and more than a few of them were glaring. He followed their sightlines to find that they were looking at a girl who was around their age, maybe a bit younger, judging by her height, who had chestnut brown hair in a short bob cut with large, bright blue eyes, wearing a pair of jean shorts, a long-sleeved, rusty orange shirt, and a pair of bright blue tennis shoes tied tightly on her feet. She was rather thin, and her skin only held light coloration from the island sun.

The leader of the now encroaching group, a tough looking girl with slicked back, slightly spiky black hair and a classic black skull shirt, standing a good three inches above the aforementioned girl as she asked in a sarcastic voice, "Who said you could come here, Horseface?"

"That's not my name! And I just wanted to use the swing set!" The girl said as bravely as she could, not yet noticing that she was trembling in fear.

The larger girl laughed at this and said, "You want to play? Fine, you can play.

"But you gotta pay the toll, Fractured!" She sent her fist towards the other girl's face with speed the wouldn't otherwise have come from a child unless she'd been trained. The girl across from her, however hardly even closed her eyes, as if she'd gotten used to this kind of treatment. And then, something unexpected happened.

Her fist had been caught by someone.

The black-haired girl whipped her head to the left with an angry glare in her eyes, only to find Izuku standing there, his left arm outstretched with a strangely disappointed look donning his face. After seeing what was about to happen, he'd tried to do the diplomatic approach and maybe talk her down, but after that punch, he almost had to use Full Cowl to get over here in time to stop the skull wearing girl from hurting the other. Then, in a strangely deadpan voice, he simply said, "Stop."

Now thoroughly intimidated, the black-haired girl stepped back with a shocked look, her eyes looking at the other girl once more before she pointed and said, "This isn't over!" as she walked away from the playground with an angry stomp in her step, her posse following soon after.

Izuku sighed in relief and turned to the chestnut-haired girl, who was now looking at him with what looked to be stars in her eyes. As if on cue, she zipped over to his left hand and practically latched onto it, shouting, "Oh my Oum, how did you do that! That was so cool!"

"Err... are you alright?"

"Oh, I'm fine, but you've gotta show me how to do that! It was awesome!"

Izuku eventually managed to get the now rather excited looking girl off his arm and placed her gently back on the ground, asking, "Do you always latch onto people can do martial arts?"

The girl flushed and apologized, "Sorry. I usually don't lose control of myself like that. But really, could you teach me?"

"Why do you want to learn?"

She looked at him with a 'really?' glare, seeing as he obviously knew what the answer to that question. Izuku then surprised her when he said, "No. Learning how to defend yourself is a good reason to learn, but it's not a good reason to remember. So, I'll ask again: why do you want to learn?"

This time, the girl was silent for several seconds, her eyes falling to the ground as though contemplating her answer. A rather serious look came onto he features as she looked up at Izuku once more with a determined gaze, saying, "Promise you won't laugh?"

"I won't."

She sat on the grassy ground, patting a spot near her for Izuku to sit on. He did so and listened as she told her reason.

"Did you hear what Mari called me before you stopped her." Izuku nodded. "Well... that's why. Mostly, anyway. When I moved here from Mistral... well, we never actually got along. She showed off her quirk for show constantly, and I might've been a bit too hard on her for it. When she found out I was a Fractured... well, that only made things worse. It wasn't too bad at first, but once some gossipy bitch found out about it and spread the info throughout my school, I had a target pinned to my back."

"Wait, how did you learn to swear? Aren't you too young for that?"

"You'd be surprised how many people swear there. And FYI, I'm twelve. Mari... well, she got a few others to back her up, and she's been on my ass ever since."

"Well... jeez. Have you told your parents?"

"Obviously not," she sighed. "It's not that I don't want to tell them, they've just got a lot on their plates right now."

"You ought to. I've been down that road before, it only makes things worse."

The girl chuckled at that. "You're obviously an only child. My parents have got too many kids to deal with my problems. I'd ask dad for help, but he's occupied with Robby. I've gotta deal with this on my own."

Izuku contemplated doing this for a few seconds before deciding to go through with it. Maybe he couldn't teach her much, but he could at least teach her how to block properly. "Alright. But I'm only gonna teach you how to block."

"What? Why?!"

"Seeking to fight someone, for any reason at all, will cause more problems than it solves." Izuku gave his rather solid reasoning to the girl. He then stood up and offered the girl a hand, asking, "What's your name?"

After Izuku helped her to her feet, the girl in question answered, "Arya. Arya Stark."

 _(6:56 am, the next day, Patch Island Docks, Yang's POV)_

"You know, you didn't have to come with me, sis. I know Patch like the back of my own hand!" Ruby said as she held her hand up for emphasis.

"Ruby, I love you to death, but your sense of direction is horrendous. Remember the last time I let you walk off alone?" Yang asked as she recalled her sister trying, and failing, to find her way to their house after she'd been let out of school early. She'd gotten lost and ended up killing a lot of Beowolves, even an Ursa. Well, she was only fourteen at the time, but still.

"I was fine!"

"Not taking the chance, little sis." Yang smiled coyly as she grabbed her sister in a headlock and gave her a nuggie, the likes of which the rose-themed girl had not received in quite some time.

"Augh! Why?!" Ruby said as she struggled to get free of the headlock, though she failed to do so. Yang had already had plenty of practice trapping Izuku, who'd proven to be much more elusive than her sister. They actually had a lot of fun with that.

 _(a few hours later, the park, Izuku's POV)_

Arya, after a rather long time of trying to get her to listen, proved to actually be a very good student. Izuku had taught her some basic blocks and dodges, though he was fairly sure she wasn't cut out for hand to hand combat. Not that it was a bad thing, not everyone was cut out for it. Still, some basic knowledge of it could save her life one day.

"So, what are we doing today?" Arya said as she stretched her arms, then briefly bouncing from one foot to the next to warm up her muscles.

"As much as I might regret this later... I'm gonna teach you how to punch properly," Izuku said hesitantly. Arya stared at him with disbelief in her gaze, and after several seconds practically jumped for joy.

"Yes, yes yes yes yes yes yes! Thank you! Thank you so much!"

"Hold on!" Izuku got her attention once more. "I'm not teaching you this just so that you can use it in a fight with that Mari girl."

"I wouldn't get into a fight with her!"

Izuku gave her a doubtful look, and after a few seconds Arya scratched the back of her head in embarrassment and admitted,"… well, I wouldn't _start_ it."

The green haired boy sighed at that, and then said, "I'm only teaching you this so that you'll know how to properly block an incoming punch. From what I understand, the best way to counter something is to know how it's done first."

"I... guess that makes sense?" Arya said, obviously confused.

"Yeah, it's not really that good of an explanation, is it?"

"Not really."

 _(a few hours later, a trail on Patch, Arya's POV)_

Despite the shaky reasoning, Izuku _did_ teach Arya how to throw a decent punch. Well, as decent as she could manage. She quickly found out after the hours they'd spent training that she wasn't quite cut out for punching. Or kicking. Or any hand to hand combat, really. Not that she didn't try, she just wasn't built for it. Literally, she was as skinny as a twig, metaphorically speaking, not bulky and well-built like Rob and Jon were. Lucky sods.

Arya was then pulled from her thoughts when she saw Mari with her normal, cocky grin spread across her lips with the other members of her posse flanking and blocking her off. Crap, how long had she been here for?

"Well well well, look who took the wrong road home today," Mari said with all the sarcasm of a thirteen-year-old which, despite her age, was quite a bit.

"I'm not looking for a fight today, Mari," Arya said as sternly as she could, hoping that some her father's intimidation factor had somehow been passed down to her. "I just want to go home. Let me through, and we can pretend this never happened."

Mari gave her a blank, emotionless stare for a few seconds before bursting into laughter, her posse doing the same just to make a mockery out of Arya's peace offering, which made her all the angrier. "Are... Are you serious right now?! Wa ha ha ha ha ha!"

"I am. Please. I just want to go home," she repeated to no avail once more, and once Mari stopped laughing, she decided to go on a bit of a villainous speech.

"You know, Horseface, I've been pissed at you ever since you came to Patch. I mean, I know your family were kinda big shots back in Mistral, but that doesn't give you any right to lord yourself over the rest of us like you're some sort of Princess."

"I'm not! And I never tried to control any of you! You're the one that started this whole thing!"

Mari didn't even listen as she continued, "And when I found out you were a Fractured, it was all the reason and more to never let you forget. I was born gifted and you were born with nothing. What gives you the right to judge me for something I was born with, huh?"

"You were hurting kids that couldn't even defend themselves! Someone had to stand up to you!"

"Stand up to me? Horseface, I don't think you understand: there's no one to stand up to. I just reacted to your pushy as hell authority complex that no one asked to deal with."

"Authority complex?! Try looking in the mirror, you power hungry, sadistically cruel, superiority obsessed bitch!"

 _That_ got all of them to stop in their tracks, with various nearly dropped jaws and dinner plate sized eyes ranging throughout the group. Mari, in particular, looked the most surprised. In all the time she'd known the chestnut-haired girl, never once had she used any swears against her. What had changed? Mari shook herself out of her daze and continued, "Well, that was just uncalled for.

"Guess I'm gonna have to teach you the meaning of your words," Mari said as she made a right hook at a high speed towards Arya's unguarded face. However, the blow never made it to her cheek, and unlike last time, instead of being saved by some unknown stranger, the girl managed to block the blow herself. She lowered the intended blow from a face with a 'try that again, I dare you' glare practically shooting daggers into Mari and managed to lower it to near her mid-torso before she continued, "I know what they mean. Otherwise, I wouldn't have used them." Arya let go of Mari's fist and asked once more, "Can I please just go home?"

Mari contemplated this for a few seconds before kneeing Arya straight in her undefended stomach, the pain of which made the chestnut-haired girl keel over as she clutched her lower torso, strangled gurgling noises emerging from her throat as she struggled for air. By the time she managed to catch her breath, she was now re-flanked on either side by a member of Mari's posse.

"No, you may not. Not until I give you that lesson I promised you the other day," she said before she snapped her fingers, causing the aforementioned two members of her posse to grab Arya by the arms and hoisted her onto her knees. She took the chestnut-haired girl's chin into her hand, forcing her gaze upwards as she continued, "I'm incredibly pissed right now, and justifiably so, I believe. For the past few days, you've been unwilling to even respond to me. I thought this was just because you'd finally gone mute or deaf like I'd hoped; but no, you were outright ignoring me. I don't like being ignored."

"E-e-err... Boss..." One of the lookouts said with a nervous look as a distant howl rang throughout the clearing where the group surrounded Arya. "I-I think there might be something-"

"Be quiet, dammit! Don't interrupt me again!" Mari stood to her full height, letting go of Arya's chin as she berated her underling for doing one of the only things that could set her off: disturbing her fun. She then turned back to Arya, who hadn't stopped glaring in seething rage in the slightest, as she continued, "You know, I hate you. I've hated you since the moment I laid eyes on you. Maybe not as much as I do now, but the seed was planted. So, here's what I'm going to do.

"If I was feeling merciful, I would've maybe given you a few extra bruises to hide when you got home. I'm not feeling so merciful at the moment. So, instead, I'm gonna beat you until you spit blood, and if you're lucky, that's where I'll stop."

"Boss..." The same lackey called again, only this time was outright ignored by Mari as she continued her tirade.

"And if you're not, I might just break one of your arms, to remind you of just how weak you really are. Never assume that you have any chance of becoming a huntress ever again. If either of us are going to become that, it's going to be me, not you. I'll get the glory, the fame, the money... the power! Once I unlock my Aura, I'll be the greatest huntress in the world!" Mari looked down at Arya once more, who hadn't stopped her seething glare the entire time she'd been talking. In fact, it looked to be even angrier. And still, she finished her egotistical speech, "You should just accept your place now, and fade into obscurity with the rest of that fallen family of yours!"

"Boss! Beowolves!"

Mari's attention finally shifted to her calling lackey, her eyes widening to the size of dinner plates when she saw that they weren't lying. The two holding Arya dropped the girl's arms and ran for their lives with the aforementioned lookout hot on their heels, screaming their heads off as they went. Mari, however, didn't move a single muscle. Her whole body had frozen up, half in terror and half in misplaced excitement. Mari knew that these things were more often than not the easiest Grimm to kill after Creeps. But if she could kill one right here and now, with nothing but her bare hands and her quirk, she could easily gain favor with a Signal and maybe even apply early!

"Come one you-" she stopped midsentence when she saw exactly how deadly they looked. Jaws with rows of nearly serrated fangs lining the insides of their lips from top to bottom, the hardly grown bone plating and spikes that looked as though they could run a grown man through given the correct angle, and those haunting, full red eyes that went straight through her, as if they were salivating at the prospect of devouring her very soul.

Her momentary courage had run out, and though she asked, demanded her limbs to move and get her away from this monster, her legs simply would not listen, not even as the juvenile Beowolf in front of her lifted its claw, aiming to swipe it through her currently still figure. And yet, when it swept at Mari, the only thing it managed to maul was the air that the girl once occupied.

Arya, despite her problems with the punky girl, didn't want to see her die to a Grimm. When she actually managed to start thinking again, she'd already tackled Mari out of the way of the Beowolf. They landed on the ground in a bit of a heap, the aforementioned chestnut-haired girl groaning in slight pain as she stood up and grabbed Mari by the collar of her shirt, aiming to get away from the encroaching Beowolf pack, but she was too heavy for the small framed girl of twelve years to carry quickly. And so, here they stood, about to be mauled to death by creatures they couldn't even hope to fight at the moment. As a Beowolf raised its claw once more, this time sure to smear and drench it with blood, Arya threw herself in front of Mari, despite herself, trying the best she could to shield her before-

 **SLICE! WHOOM! BAM! CRASH!**

… the blow never came. When a few more, long seconds passed, Arya worked up the nerve to finally peek at what had become of the pack. What she found was her temporary teacher, Izuku, with a weapon in a sword form and an older man standing beside him with a large, steel spiked Kanabo club slung over his shoulder, the two standing side by side as five Beowolf bodies lay dead and scattering at their feet. After taking a few seconds to catch his breath, he turned back to the two young girls that now laid behind him, asking without hesitation, "Are you alright?"

Arya could do nothing but stare at her saviors. In a flash, she was brought back to a moment with her father as he stood over a slain Ursa, his greatsword Ice gripped tightly in both hands. He was gasping for breath, a fresh scar that crossed from the top right of his forehead to the tip of his left cheekbone, now joining the others that already littered his body as he asked his family, _"Are you alright?"_

And in an instant, she was brought out of the memory, and answered Izuku with the same answer she'd given to her father all those years ago back in Mistral, saying, "I'll be fine."

 _(fifteen minutes later, the road to Arya's house, Izuku's POV)_

They delivered Arya and Mari back to their respective households, though the latter was far less talkative than the former. She'd been pretty shaken up; nearly getting killed would do that to almost anyone. Still, while she didn't deserve to die, Izuku was brought back to the times when he and Bakugo were still young and the ashen blonde direwolf faunus bullied him on a daily basis. Mari was going down a dark path, and hopefully, his grandfather could steer her off of it. Hopefully.

Still, the two girls wouldn't be that lucky again. He'd agreed to go on one of his grandfather's early evening patrols, more to let off steam than anything else. Well, not that he was angry, he simply had a lot of pent-up energy despite teaching Arya for a good portion of the day. That and he just... he couldn't stay at his grandparent's house for too long. Not without feeling as though something vital was missing. And that... it was his fault.

He shook himself out of his contemplation, now looking upon the rather large, almost medieval style household. Outside of it was a pacing man with shaggy, shoulder-length brown hair the same shade as Arya's with a long, black trench coat and a greatsword as large as he was slung over his right shoulder. On his feet were black combat boots, and though they were freshly shined they'd already been worn and used. At least the man took care of his things, an opinion that was reinforced be his shining, steel colored gauntlets and similarly colored chest plate, the symbol of a right facing direwolf adorning the center of it. His bright blue eyes were filled with concern as he waited anxiously for his daughter to return.

"C'mon Ned, calm down. I'm sure she'll be fine," said a familiar looking blonde man who leaned against the wall with similar but strikingly different azure colored eyes with a soul patch and slight stubble along his jawline, with a tattoo that looked like a heart adorning his right bicep in fading, dark crimson ink. He wore brown cargo shorts with a dark brown belt, black shoes, a red bandana on his left arm, and a brown leather vest over a tan dress shirt with the right sleeve cut off. For armor, he wore a double plated metal spaulder, a leather vambrace, and a brown fingerless glove, all on his right arm. That was odd. He'd never seen the man before, but... something about him felt familiar. Moving on!

"You'd be just as worried if it was one of your daughters, Taiyang. She's never this late. Always comes home by four thirty at the latest; practically like clockwork," the other man, now known as Ned, said back to the blonde man, now known as Taiyang.

"Well, it looks like you won't have to worry for much longer," Taiyang said as he nodded over to where Izuku and Arya now stood, the latter looking overly nervous when she eyed her father's pacing.

"What's wrong?" Izuku said as he noticed Arya's uncommonly anxious face.

"Dad's got that look. I'm gonna get it tonight," Arya said in defeat.

"Well, doesn't that just mean that he cares?"

"Maybe. Doesn't make it any less terrifying."

Izuku sighed and said, "Well, it's better to own up to it than to just pretend it never happened at all, isn't it?"

Arya contemplated this for a few short seconds, and as she walked over to her father, said over her shoulder, "Yeah, I suppose you're right."

She and her father stood opposing oneanother, and Taiyang, sensing he was no longer needed, slipped back from the wall and walked over to where Izuku was currently standing. He stepped next to the aforementioned green haired boy as Ned brought his daughter into a tight, almost painful looking bear hug. It was rather sweet.

Izuku felt a pang of jealousy for the girl, having a father to confide and take comfort in. He wished that he'd had the chance to even talk to his own father. However, this jealous thought was quickly stamped out, and his attention was brought back to reality as Taiyang addressed him, "Thanks for finding my friend's kid. He's been worried sick for the past half hour. Hmm... say, what's your name? You look kinda familiar..."

Izuku responded, "My name's Izuku," he held his hand out to properly introduce himself. "Izuku Midoriya. It's nice to meet you, sir."

Taiyang shook the boy's outstretched hand with a firm grip of his own, saying, "I'm Taiyang Xiao Long, but most people just call me Tai. Say... do you know my daughter? Her name's Yang, and I'm fairly sure she's mentioned someone with your name and description more than a few times..." He said in an ominous tone, causing Izuku to realize that his answer to this man's question could mean life or death. Literally.

"W-well, yeah! S-she's one of my b-best friends at Beacon. S-she's also one of the strongest f-fighters I've ever met!" Izuku hastily explained as he noticed the ominous look that covered Tai's face

However, his explanation quickly caused Tai's early expression to brighten up, slapping his hand over Izuku's shoulder as he said, "Good to know!"

"Dad, stop trying to terrify him! I can have guy friends too, you know!" Yang said as she walked over to her dad, almost immediately noticing after she got there that he'd tried to probe Izuku for any pervy thoughts he might've had. The fact that Tai was now treating him like a friend showed that he found there were no such thoughts present in Izuku's mind at the moment.

"I'm just being careful! Besides, I think he's alright. Which is saying something." Tai put his hands above his head in emphasized self-defense.

Yang sighed and said, "Well, Ruby and I are gonna be leaving for Vale again soon, Greenie. You wanna come with? Torino was pretty mad when you left nothing but a note, and we got kinda worried too."

"Sure. Just... gotta do something first." Izuku said with his head held low as he walked towards his grandparent's house, leaving a confused Yang looking after him and a knowing Tai still standing there on that same patch of grassland, thinking, _Huh. That's odd. For a second there, I could've sworn that kid looked just like Hisashi._

 _(ten minutes later, near Ryuji & Makoto's house, Izuku's POV)_

It was always a bit of a different experience, every time he stayed with his grandparents. Sometimes it was quiet, sometimes it was rowdy, and sometimes it was an odd combination of the two. However, there was always one part about their stays that was never made easier. Saying their goodbyes and paying their respects. It was _always_ the hardest part.

"Well, it's certainly been nice staying with you. Thank you again for letting us stay with you," Inko said as she bowed to Ryuji and Makoto as deeply as her gut would allow.

"Stand, stand. For the last time, the last person you should be bowing to is me," Makoto said as Inko slowly but surely came out of the position she'd placed herself into. Izuku was tempted to do the same as his mother had, but he'd quickly learned after his first stay that his grandparents hated formalities among family.

"We come? Is tradition, yes?" Ryuji said, knowing that this would likely be painful for them, as it was every time they said goodbye. But they needed to do it on their own. He wanted to help the two, but they wouldn't allow him. Especially Izuku. He wished his grandson would stop hesitating and see that he was already more than worthy to bare-

"Thank you, but we don't wish to trouble you any longer," Inko said with finality in her voice. If they weren't related, Makoto would've sworn that they were somehow related.

"See you next year!" Izuku said with fake enthusiasm and a forced smile. Ryuji and Makoto had come to know it well, despite their best efforts to help.

A few minutes passed before he and his mother stood before a thick trunked oak tree with a large, bristling overhead of dark green leaves. In the center of the trunk was an inscription in neat, surprisingly well carved Ancient Mistralian Script. Izuku did not know the whole of the language, but he did know what this particular carving read; _Here lies Hisashi Midoriya. I am a Leaf on the Wind. Watch how I Soar._

Inko stood in front of the tree for a long, silent minute with her eyes closed tightly and her hands clasped in front of her, praying that the soul of her husband would hear her. Neither Izuku or his mother were particularly religious, but they were open to the possibility of an afterlife existing. If there was one... well, they just hoped that Hisashi was in the good place.

When she was finished with her prayer, she unclasped her hands and opened her eyes. Inko then looked back her son with a knowingness in her eyes, saying, "I'll... I'll leave you two alone," before she walked to sit beneath a fairly distant, shady tree, where Yang and Ruby too waited patiently for their friend. As Inko sat beside them, the blonde asked with a worried tone, "Will he be okay?"

"Yes. It's hard on him, but... ever since he turned seven, he's always said goodbye to Hisashi alone. I didn't want him too, but he insisted," Inko briefly explained. Ruby then observed the freckled boy's expression, commenting, "He looks so sad."

"… he always does."

 **("Cold" from RWBY by Jeff Williams, feat. Casey Lee Williams. Warning: you're probably going to cry)**

A slight push of wind swept through the grove, making Izuku's hair wave slightly in the wind as the leaves on top of the tree rustled loudly before calming as quickly as they'd been stirred. Izuku held one of his hands gingerly in a timid, meek grip, one that he hadn't used since before Initiation. Then, with a shaking but determined voice, he said, "H-hey... dad."

An awkward silence followed that single statement, as if he was expecting an answer that would never be voiced. The green haired boy then spoke again, "I... guess it's been a while. Again. I, uh... I got into Beacon! I made some awesome friends there too! My partner's always looking after me and the rest of my team. And making sure my other two teammates don't kill each other... I wasn't joking, they really have tried to do that before. I guess that's why he's our leader after all. His name's Shoto, and he's the best friend I could've asked for. He's a bit... odd, though. Well, not nearly as odd as Mei is, but still.

"Then there's Tenya and Bakugo. You already know about the latter, but the former is... he's very uptight and rule abiding, to say the least. He's related to Ingenium too, so it's not exactly surprising that he's a really fast and precise fighter. And yeah, I'm on the same team as _that_ Bakugo. It was... pretty awkward, at first. But we came to terms with it. I... don't think we're friends. We're more like rivals at the moment. But all together, we're Team STIK! And yes, the spelling of our team name does tend confuse people. Oh! Speaking of which: I also met some other teams, JNPR and RWBY. We're a pretty tightly knit group of friends. I think at least some combination of our teams are always together. You'd like them. Especially Yang and Ruby. I think they'd have liked you too.

"It's been a pretty crazy year. We've stopped a lot of White Fang and a new bad guy group that formed recently. I think they're called The Lodge of Criminals. And we even stopped the Huntsman Hunter! It wasn't an easy fight, but we beat him. Even if it did take all four of us to take him out.

"I... erm..." Izuku struggled to say what came next, and after a few long seconds, said, "I hope I've been making you proud, wherever you are. I... I don't know what's going to come next, after the Vytal Tournament, but I'm kinda scared. And I don't know if... if I'll ever be able to live up to you. But..." his eyes began to well up with translucent tears as he continued on, "… but I'm gonna be okay. So you don't have to worry about me. I've got mom and the rest of my team to help me out. I hope-" he stopped as tears began to abruptly spill from his eyelids, causing him to wipe them off and say, "Dammit. I promised myself I wouldn't cry again," before continuing, "I hope you're happy, wherever you are. But I wish... I wish you were here to talk to me.

"… bye, dad. I'll see you next year." Izuku turned from the tree and began to walk towards where his mother, Yang and Ruby stood waiting for him. And then, out of the corner of his ear, so faint that he wasn't sure it was truly voiced, someone whispered to the green haired boy, _"I'm proud of you, Izuku. More than you will ever know."_

This caused him to stop in his tracks and slowly looked back to the tree, an expectant look in his gaze, only to find that his father was nowhere to be seen, and the oak tree stood as lonely as it had before, it's leaves gently waving in the wind. With this final look, Izuku slowly blinked before giving a final, now true smile, before turning back and walking with those waiting for him to the Patch docks, the Vytal Tournament now ready and ripe for the fighting.

 **A/N: *sniff* What? I'm not crying, you're crying!**

 **Anyways guys, I hope you enjoyed this chapter. I know it's a bit of a bittersweet note to enter the Vytal Festival on, but I thought that it was appropriate. And for those of you who may be wondering: Ancient Mistralian Script is basically an older version of Japanese.**

 **Anyhow, there's a tournament to be fought! Plus Ultra Style!**

 **Next Chapter: Mar. 11th**

 **Seeya in the next one!**


	26. Let the Games Begin!

**A/N: Over 50,000 views?! *turns to the fanfic gods of epicness* I'M NOT WORTHYYYYYYYYYYYY!**

 **Seriously though, thank you all for the amazing support. I think my motivation for this story would've died out a long time ago if it weren't for you. Now, enough of this mushy crap! Let's fight!**

 **Disclaimer: I do not own RWBY or My Hero Academia. They belong to Monty Oum, Kohei Horikoshi, and their respective publishing companies. Please support the official releases.**

 **I do not own the cover image.**

Chapter 26: Let the Games Begin!

Izuku narrowly avoided being stabbed by one of Tokoyami's flintlock daggers held in a backhand grip, only for his feet to be taken out from under him by Shadow, an almost Lancelot parallel semblance that was directly connected to Tokoyami. It had the same body build as its master, though it was far more mobile and definitively stronger. Actually, were it not for the fact that the raven faunus was currently engaging him in melee combat, Izuku predicted that Tokoyami could likely hold a good number of opponents at mid-distance for a good amount of time.

Still, the surprise trip from Shadow proved to be no obstacle for him, especially not with Full Cowl activated, as the green haired inheritor recovered from the attempted trip with an almost breakdance looking move, twisting his body in such a way that, as he landed on his left hand, he pushed off in an almost twist flip fashion as he tried a shot with Cirrus (left foot) which unfortunately missed before he followed it up with a devastating downward one handed slash from Tempest in its sword form, leaving a slightly cracked split mark where Tokoyami once stood before dodging out of the way and their exchange of swordplay began once more.

In another part of the arena, filled with storm clouds and rocky terrain, Shoto was currently fending off an attacker in the form of Mina, who, unlike the other times they'd seen her, now donned her hunter's outfit: a blue, black and gray colored camo jacket with short sleeves and pockets littered about symmetrically on the front and sleeves, the only thing disturbing the coloration being the two curved horns and devilish smile plastered onto the back in hot pink. Under the jacket was a black crop top that exposed most of her lower torso, though nothing beyond that. She also wore a pair of dark blue skinny jeans and white tennis shoes with pink soles and laces, though said soles did have certain designs to them to allow her to use her acid to skate around on. In her hands were curve bladed, machine gun tonfa/wakizashis painted with pink and blue designs, which she was currently using to keep Shoto at bay as she slid around that section of the arena, firing long bursts at him and getting in more than a few hits by the time she was done.

This was exactly the type of opponent that Shoto had the most trouble dealing with. It wasn't that he couldn't get any hits on her, he'd gotten in plenty of those, but what really troubled him was the fact that he couldn't trap her with his ice. The half and half leader had tried that once before, and his efforts had been futile. Then, the pink haired girl zipped by and met Jotunheim with her own weapons, an audible clash of blade meeting blade erupting between them before the clash broke and the bout continued.

Tenya, despite his predisposition as a sniper, was still very much trained in close ranged combat, which proved to be immensely helpful against his current opponent, Tsuyu, now also donning her hunter's outfit: a green jumpsuit with symmetrical, waving designs weaving all about her body in an artistic fashion with a bright yellow symbol of a three-point crown, which, held the head of a frog in the same green as the jumpsuit on the center of it, the whole of which was emblazoned onto the center of her chest. Over that was an unbuttoned, gray vest that minorly hid the various gray pockets around her body: two on the outsides of her thighs, four on the gray belt of the jumpsuit, and one on each of her biceps, all of which contained Dust for the weapons currently donning her wrists: a pair of wrist sword/bladed whips that utilized the aforementioned Dust to empower the blades with different elemental affinities for different situations. She was currently using ice in her left and lightning in her right, using both in simulations attacks to keep the spectacled huntsman on his toes, and though he tried his damnedest to get in a hit on her, the aforementioned frog faunus proved to be just as elusive as her bubbly teammate. Still, that didn't make this fight any less challenging. Or fun.

And finally, on the other side of the arena, this one filled with trees and other kinds of foliage, another bout was being fought between the powerhouses of teams STIK and TAKT in the forms of Bakugo and Kirishima, both with equally wide smiles on their faces as they met each other blow for blow; doing which with anyone else likely would've broken their fists; and visible shockwaves came from where their blows met in the middle. If you focused closely enough, you might've been able to see that while Kirishima's smile was a joyful one, his rounded wolverine ears only slightly twitching, Bakugo's by comparison was far more feral and bestial in nature, with his ears flattened for emphasis. Still it was a smile nonetheless, and despite its surface nature, he was having the time of his life.

Meanwhile, up in the spectator's box, Port and Oobleck bantered and jabbed as they simultaneously spectated the match in front of them. It was an odd, friendly thing they always did somehow, no matter where they were.

"Well, it would seem that there's yet another destructively astonishing fight ahead of us, isn't that right, Professor?" Port asked his colleague, knowing that the name calling would at the very least annoy the man.

" _Doctor_. And yes Peter, I think it's safe to say that this single match may be the closest we've seen since the previous one between Teams RWBY and ABRN!" Oobleck responded with a slightly annoyed tone in his voice.

"For those of you just joining us: _WELCOME TO THE VYTAL FESTIVAL TOURNAMENT!_ " Port announced as the crowd cheered in response, the battle beneath them continuing all the while as more than a few explosions echoed from where Bakugo and Kirishima were having their standoff.

"If this is your first time watching, allow us to explain the rules," Port said as Oobleck continued, "The tournament is divided into three rounds: Teams, Doubles, and Singles. Age and school year are entirely irrelevant. Here, the only attribute being tested-" he briefly fixed the position of his glasses, "- is skill."

"Correct," Port continued, "The winners of this fight will select two of their members to advance on to the doubles round, followed by the winners of that round choosing a single member to advance to the one on one finals!"

It was then that Oobleck took the opportunity to explain a unique situation for that particular year, "However, this year, due to the sudden withdrawal of Team MTN, who sent an apology letter that just arrived this morning, it has been decided almost unanimously that one of the winning doubles teams, selected via a randomization system, shall advance into the one on one finals together! However, in order to ensure that the match ups remain fair, they shall be the first to fight in the finals, and they shall be fighting against each other, so that only one may truly advance to the next bracket of the tournament.

"The winner of that fight, as well as the remaining winners from the doubles round, will then fight their way through the final bracket in the hope of achieving victory for their kingdom!" Port finished the explanation of the rules.

"Now then, I do believe that it is quite high time that we return to the epically pulse pounding match between Team STIK of Beacon and Team TAKT of Haven!" Oobleck concluded with such an enthusiasm that as he finished his sentence, the crowd almost seemed to roar in excited response.

 **("Guns and Roses" OST from Baccano; fair warning: you might have to replay it once or twice)**

As if on cue, as soon as the crowd erupted in approval, the fight reoccupied the audience's attention once more, and needless to say that it was a fairly entertaining moment to come back to.

Izuku and Tokoyami were evenly matching one another blow for blow, the former keeping Tempest in sword mode since going into scythe mode would more than likely give the raven faunus the upper hand, and he wasn't even accounting for Shadow, who proved to be quite the annoyance whenever he tried to pull off that new move he'd been saving for the tournament. Seriously, how the heck could he pull off so many flanks and distractions? Still, most of these were proven fruitless, since after the first one Izuku was sure to watch out for any more, and with his increased reflexes from the combined training under All Might and Torino it proved to be a moot point.

He gave a glance over to where his leader was fighting with Mina and struggling. As Tokoyami charged at him once more with a front spinning flip attack, Izuku brought Tempest up to meet his Celestial Legacy head on, the aforementioned raven faunus saying as they held the clash, "You're definitely stronger than when you faced down those goons in Black Bear Den."

"Thanks, but I'm just getting warmed up. Also, sorry for what's about to happen."

"What-" Tokoyami began before being cut off when Izuku angled Tempest in such a way that the edges screeched against each other before he let go of Tempest, causing his feather haired opponent to stumble, giving the green haired inheritor the perfect opportunity to bring his hands together and deliver a brutally devastating two-handed, sideways hammer strike to his opponents face, sending him sprawling across the arena at a high speed before crashing into a tree where Bakugo and Kirishima were duking it out, both turning to Izuku before they simultaneously yelled, "Hey, watch it!"

"Sorry!" was all he had time to respond with before he dashed off to help his leader, leaving the two to begin duking it out once again. That and he summoned Tempest back to his hand beforehand. Thank you training experiments!

 _… dammit Torino, why do you always make me go through hell?!_

"Shoto!" Izuku got his leader's attention and continued with one of their attack code-words as he shifted Tempest into scythe mode, "Frozen Maelstrom!"

Shoto nodded in acknowledgement, a slight smile appearing on his face at the prospect of his attack code-names being used, as Izuku stood next to him as he held Tempest above his head and began to spin it in a perfect circle, using his Aura to power the blade and begin making a miniature tornado, within which Shoto began to launch multiple shards of ice via a combination of Jotunheim and his ice powers, creating what this combination attack had been named after: a Frozen Maelstrom.

Izuku then redirected the airflow, stopping his spinning Buzzsaw arc and making a single, wide sweep, almost guiding the storm he'd helped to create towards the recently recovered and now scrambling to escape Mina, who, with the help of some clever acid applications, managed to dodge most of the shards, though the wind, combined with some of the larger shards, was enough to send her sprawling into a wall of Ice that Shoto had cleverly placed behind her as she dodged the immediate threats while ignoring the subtle one.

The two partners then fist bumped, their faces beaming at the fact that their attack worked on the first live fire trial. However, while Mina's Aura was definitely damaged, she wasn't quite down for the count, and, as was clearly evidenced by Tokoyami's sudden appearance by his teammate's side, neither was he. Both their Auras were edging on the fifty marks while Shoto's and Izuku's both sat comfortably in the green range. Seeing this, Izuku once more shifted Tempest to its bastard sword length before they reengaged into combat.

Meanwhile Tenya was having problems keeping up with Tsuyu, despite his speed. In fact that wasn't really the problem. Similar to Shoto, Tenya's opponent was very good at hit and run tactics and very good at avoiding his primary fighting style. Even when they managed to engage in close quarters combat, which was seldom rare, Tsuyu usually had the upper hand due to the unpredictable nature of her weapon. Like she did right now.

And then, almost completely out of nowhere, rapid machine gun fire sounded from somewhere within Tenya's blind spot, causing the frog faunus to dodge mid-stride to avoid getting shot. His savior stood beside him in the form of Bakugo with the guns of Smoke and Shrapnel beaded onto Tsuyu's form. Tenya soonafter returned the favor by shooting Kirishima when he tried to reengage their earlier brawl.

"So, how do you want to do this, four eyes?" Bakugo asked with a low growl in his voice.

"Mach 5 Warhead." Tenya responded sharply.

"… are we really-"

"Yes, we're using the name, just get ready to launch," Tenya interrupted his partner mid-sentence, dropping into a pro runner's starting stance while Bakugo, still grumbling at the prospect that they were actually doing this, dropped into a similar stance with his hands angled behind his feet, and, as if on cue, Kirishima and Tsuyu rushed at them with their weapons drawn bare, Kirishima with his claw gauntlets and Tsuyu with her arm sword/whips.

Just as they'd planned.

As the two aforementioned teammates launched towards Tenya and Bakugo, they began their counter attack, as Bakugo made dual explosions to launch himself and Tenya forwards, though Tenya was quite faster due to his semblance. Doing this allowed them to create an opening where their opponents backs were turned and, using simultaneous cut-turns, launched back towards the two an began to lay into them, Bakguo with machine gun-esque jabs, hooks, and punches, while Tenya's, though far faster, was much more gacesful and precise, making several stabs towards Kirishima's exposed back, though most of the damage was make moot by the fact that he'd hardened that section of his body to solid rock.

"And Tsuyu Asui is eliminated by Aura depletion!" The voice of Port boomed before the two had even hit the floor.

"Oh, that's gotta hurt," Oobleck commented as Kirishima rose slowly from the ground, saying in a deep, almost angry voice, **"That... was incredibly unmanly!"** Before launching himself straight for Bakugo, who was now put into one of the rare cases of defense or death. Tenya tried to interfere, but simply got backhanded away for his efforts, leaving Bakugo to face off against a now enraged Kirishima all by his lonesome.

The sniper landed near where Izuku was striking Tokoyami out of the arena with a wide sweep from Tempest, a ring out being declared with the aforementioned raven faunus' Aura just barely hanging away from the red as he landed near Tsuyu, who lifted her partner over her shoulder soon after. Tenya then gestured towards where Bakugo was trying, and barely not failing, to not die. Izuku was the first to recognize this and sped off to help his rival.

Shoto, seeing that his partner was currently needed elsewhere, said to his spectacled teammate, "Okay, let's do Liquid Nitrogen. That should at least get her out of the ring, if nothing else."

"Understood," Tenya replied without hesitation, an almost uncharacteristic smile coming onto his face as he loaded Pride with ice Dust, Shoto suddenly sheathing Jotunheim in a rather nonchalant fashion, confusing Mina perfectly. It was then that Tenya began to rapidly fire the ice Dust at Mina, making her slowly strafe closer and closer towards them, simultaneously cutting off her escape route before-

 **SHING!**

-Shoto made a wide, almost samurai-esque quick draw slash towards the branch horned girl, sending her spiraling out of the arena while nearly breaking her Aura entirely, the strike itself carrying so much force that the icicles that formed around her had been cleaved in two. However, she was not even mad about this, saying, "Good one!" As she flew across the arena before hitting the ground and tumbling towards her friends, who managed to stop her before she reached the wall of the arena.

Now, the only one of the opposing team left was Kirishima, who was putting up quite the fight against the reluctant duo of Izuku and Bakugo. No matter how they tried to attack the red-haired brawler he seemed to tough through it all, which was helped by the fact that most of his skin had now been hardened and his Aura was only going down by slivers.

"C'mon! You're not hitting me manly enough!"

Izuku looked over at Bakugo as Kirishima yelled this and uttered the codeword for the attack they'd only practiced once. "Firestorm!"

Still grumbling, Bakugo yelled in response, "Fine, but don't blame me when this thing goes to shit!"

Despite his reluctance to do so, the ashen blonde direwolf faunus got into position to begin the attack, allowing Izuku to slowly but surely push Kirishima towards where Bakugo currently stood, and once he was close enough, Bakugo grabbed Kirishima by his arm and began to spin around faster and faster, building up momentum until finally, with an almost deafening explosion, he threw the wolverine faunus high above the arena as he howled his signature phrase: **"DIE!"**

This, however, was not where the attack was to stop. Bakugo then put his hands together as Izuku ran towards him, creating a step for the freckled boy to use as a launching platform and, using an explosion of similar force, launched Izuku upwards, shooting straight for Kirishima. It then looked as though Bakugo may have been a bit too forceful with that last blast, because Izuku was now at least twenty feet higher than his opponent. Oh well, it didn't matter anyway. In fact, it might've actually helped him out, and he could use that one move he'd been practicing for a while.

With almost blinding speed, and all the previous energy that Tempest had already built up, he swept his arms through the air twice, once vertically and once horizontally, sending two, nearly touching bright green streaks straight into Kirishima and launching him out of the arena, but not before he yelled, "Now that's the kind of manly that I'm talking about!"

"Eijiro Kirishima is eliminated by ring out! Team STIK advances to the next round!" Oobleck announced to the cheering crowd as Izuku's gravity came back into play and he started to fall back to the ground.

 **(A/N: End Song)**

Luckily, the green haired inheritor managed to avoid becoming a splat on the pavement when Shoto formed a downward spiraling ramp beneath him. When Izuku reached the bottom, he heard the cheers of the crowd, the excitement in the air, the tension that the next round would bring.

"WOO HOO! YOU WERE AWESOME, GREENIE! I KNEW YOU COULD DO IT!"

And of course, he could hear one of his best friends/secret crush showing her unfiltered support alongside the rest of her team; even Blake and Weiss were cheering for them.

"THEY MADE IIIIIIII-"

(ten minutes later, the Fairgrounds, general POV)

"-IIIIIIIIis anyone else starving?" Ruby said as hunched over in hunger; it was an exaggeration, of course but she was hungry nonetheless.

"I am," Izuku said plainly, though he too was hunched over from hunger.

"I might've worked up an appetite," Blake said as humbly as she could before a loud, almost unnatural growl emerged from her direction, specifically from her stomach, causing her to cover the lower part of her torso while smiling sheepishly.

"Understatement of the fucking century," Bakugo muttered under his breath before getting smacked upside the head by Yang and Tenya, the former for using profanity around her sister while the latter for using profanity in general.

"Gee, if only there was somewhere on campus where we could get some food," she said expectantly as she spread her arms wide, as if indicating the stalls around them before saying, "Oh, wait!"

"It's alright, Weiss. I forget about the Fairgrounds too," Ruby said, not seeming to notice the sarcasm in her friend's voice.

"I was being facetious!" The white-haired heiress answered in kind.

"Don't you mean sarcastic? Ribbit," Tsuyu asked as the rest of her team nodded in approval.

"I... I guess," she reluctantly admitted.

"Pfft! Well if you were hungry, why didn't you say so?!" Ruby raised her arms above her head to overemphasize.

"C'mon sis, it's not a big deal. Besides, I know a place," Yang said with a teasing smile on her face, causing Blake's eyes to widen as she asked, "Is it the one with the fish bowls the size of boulders or the one with free seconds?"

"...yes," the blonde brawler said in a coyly vague voice with her previous smile only widening as they followed her, Weiss only briefly stopping to check her phone and ignore a call. Who it was from, Izuku did not know.

"Hey!" They turned to the source of the voice, finding Emerald standing behind them with a wallet between her first two fingers as she continued, "Might be hard to eat without this!"

"What?!" Ruby patted herself over, searching for the wallet that the mint haired girl was now holding as she mumbled,"-no, no no no no-"

This caused Emerald to laugh at the ridiculousness of it all, then saying, "Good to see you guys again. It's been pretty boring without you around."

"Well, your time training couldn't have been entirely monotonous, correct?" Tenya asked as Ruby recievd her wallet from Emerald, angrily mumbling something about 'girl pockets' as she restashed her money.

"You'd be surprised. Most of my teammates like to do their own thing, and the only one I really get along with is Cinder, so..." she shrugged, "It was pretty quiet for the most part."

"So, what's up, Em?" Yang asked.

"Oh, I left after watching STIK's amazing fight!" She turned to the aforementioned team and continued, "Seriously, you guys kicked some major butt!"

"Well, we do excel at it," Shoto said with a bit of pride in his voice.

"Indeed! If there's one thing about a hunter's tasks that never changes, it's that there's never a halt to combat!" Tenya piped in.

Bakugo didn't respond, instead stomping his foot into the ground repeatedly to show his impatience, emphasized by the fact that his ears were once again flat and there was a slight growl emerging from his throat.

"W-well, I don't think I'm t-that good, but thank you!" Izuku said sheepishly as he scratched the back of his head, his awkwardness as clear as ever.

"So, you're Emerald?" Mina asked with a grin on her face, the mint haired girl simply nodding as the seahorse faunus stuck out her hand and introduced herself, "Name's Mina Ashido! Pleasure to meet ya!"

"It's nice to meet you too," Emerald responded as she then looked over the rest of Team TAKT, recognizing them from the earlier battle as she said, "No offense, but didn't these guys basically kick your teeth in like, ten minutes ago?" as she gestured towards STIK, of which only the third member looked at all guilty.

"Well, we're actually good friends, so it wasn't really that big of a deal," Kirishima tried to deflect.

"But weren't you disappointed that we wouldn't be advancing to the final round, though?" Tokoyami pointed out with only the slightest of cheeky smiles on his face. Well, beak.

"That doesn't mean it wasn't a good fight!" Kirishima responded in kind.

"HEY!" Everyone whipped around to find the source of the yell, finding someone who looked very much like Kirishima, if a bit more bestial. He had slightly parted, naturally spiky gray hair with no eyebrows, and incredibly thick white eyelashes that completely circled his eyes, the pupils of which were small, almost nonexistent black dots, and his mouth was lined top to bottom with sharp teeth. He wore his hunters outfit: a black undershirt with a gray, X shaped harness with a small, shiny red button on the center of his torso, though it looked like it was there more for style then to actually hold anything. He wore baggy black pants that were tucked into his gunmetal grey boots, which were almost entirely plated. On his arms were a pair of similarly colored gauntlets that completely covered his hands, and actually shared many similarities with Kirishima's weapon. Plus, similarly shaped, gray ears made him look like Kirishima's long lost brother, though Izuku was fairly sure that whoever this was was likely of a different subspecies. Maybe a bear.

He then walked over to Kirishima and stared the wolverine faunus down, though Kirishima glared back just as harshly. Then, as soon as the tension had been created they grasped each other's hands in the form of a 'bro' handshake and smiled as they synched, "Dude, how've ya been?"

.

..

…

"… I honestly thought they were going to fight from the way they were glaring at each other," Weiss commented as Tenya nodded in agreement.

"Oh, that's just how he and Tetsutetsu talk. They actually used to fight constantly when they first met each other. Now they're almost like actual brothers. Ribbit," Tsuyu gave a brief explanation for their friendliness.

"They can certainly bicker like siblings as well," was all Tokoyami had to say on the matter.

"Speaking of which, we should probably follow them. Ya know, make sure they don't destroy anything," Mina said as she pointed after the two aforementioned brawlers, who were now jollily strolling through the stalls of the Fairgrounds with their arms over each other's shoulders, with an intense excitement bringing them to one of the many strength-based games littered throughout.

"Yes, we should," Tokoyami said as he and Mina dashed after their teammate, Tsuyu briefly saying, "See you guys around!" before going after them.

"Well... that was certainly... odd," Blake said in a confused tone.

"Oh! I heard that your team advanced to the next round! Congrats!" Izuku changed the subject.

"I can't help but feel like we never see your teammates. Well, other than Mercury, but he... doesn't really make much sense," Weiss commented.

"How did you do?" Shoto asked, causing Emerald to look slightly upwards with an analytical look on her face as she reminisced to just an hour ago.

 _(an hour ago, the Vytal Stadium, Emerald's POV)_

Emerald leaped into the air, preforming a cartwheel flip as she unleashed a volley of bullets at her mark, who subsequently fell out of the arena bounds, now leaping back again so that Mercury could kick her new assailant in the chin.

She took a brief glance towards Cinder as she fought bare handed, kneeing her opponent in the face before double palm slamming her hands into their stomach, sending them sprawling across the battlefield in a heap only to be stopped by Dabi's foot. The turquoise eyed boy, relentless as ever, pressed his boot hard into his opponent's shoulder and said not a word as he fired a shot from Purgatory into the center of their forehead, which, had they not any Aura, would've resulted in a brutal demise.

 _(present time, the Fairgrounds, general POV)_

"Really well," Emerald simply said with an unreadable smile on her lips.

"That's awesome! I bet it was a great fight!" Yang said with an emphasized fist pump.

"Do you wish to have a victory meal with us?" Tenya politely offered.

"That's really nice of you, but my teammates are kinda... introverted," she glanced over to where Mercury was currently sniffing a boot, testing the quality of the leather it had been made from, and Dabi was busy brooding in silence as usual.

"… well, most of them are, I'm pretty sure Dabi's just plain crazy. But Cinder and Mercury... really socially awkward," Emerald lied without a single tell.

"I get it. I-I'm not the best with talking either," Izuku commented.

"Well, me and Mercury are going to the doubles round. How about you guys?"

"Well, as leader, I thought long and hard about this decision," Ruby puffed her chest out in pride.

Weiss then went 2D for a moment as she leaned in and commented, "We put it to a vote," before leaning back. How was this possible? No one knew... **(A/N: Ha! And you thought it was dead! Nope! I will run this joke into the f*%^ing ground!)**

"A-a-ah! But I decided that we should out it to a vote!" Ruby said, trying to save some semblance of the pride she'd felt.

"We voted for Weiss and Yang," Blake stated.

"I will happily represent Team RWBY," the platinum haired heiress politely curtsied.

"Yeah, we're gonna kick some butt!" The blonde brawler slammed her fists together in excitement with a wry smile on face.

"Awesome! What about you guys?" Emerald switched her focus to Team STIK.

"It was hardly a contest as to who should participate. Bakugo and I are good partners, but we do not yet have the coordination skills of our teammates," Tenya stated as Bakugo seethed in the background, muttering, "should've been me," multiple times underneath his breath.

"It certainly won't be easy, but I cannot wait for us to proceed to the doubles round," Shoto said with a small smile still adorning his face, his green haired partner saying, "We'll at least give them one heck of a fight!"

Emerald chuckled at this, and continued, "Well, if me and Merc see you down the line, don't think we'll go easy on ya."

"Wouldn't have it any other way!" Yang boldly challenged.

"See you later!" Ruby said as Teams RWBY and STIK walked towards the noodle stand Yang boasted of earlier, Emerald giving a sincere sounding, "Bye!" back to them. As soon as her other teammates came into view, she stuck her tongue out in disgust.

"So, how're the new 'friends?" Mercury said with quotation marks to emphasize his sarcasm.

"… I hate them," Emerald said as flatly as humanly possible.

"We know. You wouldn't stop bitching about them for at least an hour last time," Dabi commented to stoke his mint haired teammate's ire even more, though she tried not to show it.

"Hey, orders are orders," Mercury said as he shrugged indifferently, secretly glad that he wasn't the one that had to engage the enemy in such a casual manner.

"It's just-" Emerald had exaggerated, seemingly over frustrated hand gestures as she did so, "-how can they be so happy all the time?!"

"I'm fairly sure Bakugo's never happy," Dabi muttered under his breath.

"Did you at least get what we wanted?"

"Yeah. RWBY's got the heiress and the bimbo, and STIK's got icy hot and jade for brains," she reported.

"Hmm. Well, at least we know what we're working with now," Mercury said as they walked back towards the stadium, though not before Dabi said, "Blondie's not a bimbo, by the way. She's actually fairly clever."

"It was a figure of speech! I don't care about her lack of a sex life, it's just what she looks like to me," Emerald quipped back with far more hostility.

"Appearances are often deceiving," Dabi shrugged

"… fuck you."

"I'd rather not."

"… you better start running..." Emerald reached towards the back of her belt, where she kept a small backup knife in the case that she ever lost her weapon. Or if she felt like chasing Mercury around for complaining too much.

"It was a joke. Besides, you're not really my type."

"And what type would yours be?" Mercury asked as Penny briefly came into view, with a rather large looked sunhat resting on her head, only to then be escorted away by a dark-skinned girl with a military beret before Dabi answered, "None of your Oumdammed business."

 _(three minutes later, the food stand, Izuku's POV)_

The two teams sat on different corners of the noodle stand's bar, Izuku and Yang sitting the closet to each other (they both briefly blushed from the close proximity) while Ruby sat right of her sister, Weiss sat right of her partner and Blake sat at the other end of the bar. Shoto, similarly, sat left of his brother in arms while Tenya sat left of him and Bakugo sat on the far end of their side of the bar.

The old man from the dust shop (who seemed to be running damn near everything at that point) then zipped out of the kitchen to take their orders. Yang started them off with, "I'll have a bowl of the regular, please," and not two seconds later the old man had already raced inside his kitchen, prepared the requested meal, and served it. Did me secretly have his Aura unlocked or something?

"Ooooh. I'll take the same," Ruby received her bowl shortly afterwards.

"I'll have the udon special," Shoto said, receiving a bowl of larger noodles with mixed veggies and meats.

"Ultra-hot red meat curry," Bakugo growled, a loud bang signifying the completion of his order

"Do you have anything with a low salt-" Weiss was interrupted when a bowl of low salt noodles was practically flung at her from the kitchen.

"Pork bento for me, please," Tenya politely requested, and said box was placed in front of him soon after.

Blake didn't say a word, only giving a small smile as she nodded to the shop runner, who acknowledged the nod with one of his own before once more rushing into the kitchen with loud clanging noises emerging from within, then coming out again to present a magnificent bowl filled to the brim with cartoon esque fish. The raven haired faunus' eyes were then replaced by yellow stars, visibly drooling at the sight of her favorite food, and Izuu could've sworn he somehow heard a heartbeat somewhere in the background. How was any of this possible? Say it with me now: No one knew.

When it was finally Izuku's turn to order, he looked through the list of options and finally settled on the item at the end of the menu. With determination in his eyes, the freckled inheritor ordered, "The Vytal Tournament Beef Bowl Challenge."

Everyone there, including the shop owner, snapped their heads towards him, all with similar looks of disbelief on their faces. When he made no move to correct his order, the shop runner, with incredibly obvious hesitation, walked into the kitchen one final time to give Izuku what he ordered. The bowl itself was massive, at least twice as large as the other bowls, if not even bigger, and the thick, delicious aroma that wafted off of the food contained within was almost enough to make Izuku dive in and eat right away. However, by some modicum of self-control, the blazer wearing boy managed to hold himself back.

It was at this moment that Bakugo said, "Actually, make this an extra-large," and the shop runner complied leaving an even larger bowl of the same meal he'd ordered earlier in front of the parka baring boy, his rivalry with Izuku in damn near everything now even more obvious than ever before. The new bowl was actually almost as large as Izuku's, and was similarly incredibly overstuffed.

Then, Weiss, ever the saving grace, handed the shop runner her credit card to pay for the entire meal. She'd become gradually nicer as they got know her better, but this level of kindness was practically unheard of for her. Oh well. Everything's relative... moving on!

"Aw, Weiss! What's the occasion?" Yang asked.

"Indeed. You've never offered to pay for anything before; at least, to my considerable knowledge," Tenya piped in with his two cents on the matter.

"Consider it thanks for sending me to the doubles round," was the explanation the white-haired heiress gave her friends. Then, out of nowhere, the shop runner threw Weiss' card back at her like a shuriken, slicing into the polished smooth oak wood that made up the bar. The members of Teams RWBY and STIK held similar surprised looks on their faces, except for Bakugo, who simply looked confused, as they looked back towards the shop runner, now donning a not so happy expression before he pointed towards the register without speaking a word, letting the word on said machine speak for itself.

"Well, so much for that plan," Shoto said, noticing that no one had yet touched their meals. A good thing too. Since Weiss couldn't pay it might've been best for them to not even touch their food for the time being.

"What?! How can my card be declined? I was barely into my monthly allowance..." Weiss said with obvious confusion spreading throughout her face. Blake, however, was trying the best she could to keep her bowl of fish as close as possible, until the shop runner saw that shit and mercilessly took away said bowl, since it was, surprisingly, the most expensive thing there, seeing as Vale didn't have as much access to fish as Atlas and especially Mistral.

"Nooooo..." Blake cried silently as she slumped over the bar, clearly upset at the prospect of losing a meal of that magnitude. So much delicious fish, gone...

"I believe I can help with that," a certain redhead offered as she and the rest of Team JNPR followed after her with similar hungry looks on their faces.

"Pyrrha!" Ruby yelled in fondness.

"Wait don't you guys have a match in a few minutes?" Izuku asked with concern as he continued, "You could get disqualified if you're late."

"Thank you for the concern, Izuku, but we actually have approximately thirty minutes before our match starts. We have some time before then to go over some strategies in the meantime," Ren answered in one of the longest sentences Izuku had ever heard the magenta eyed boy utter. Well, the ones that he heard.

"Aw, c'mon, you don't have to," Yang said playfully, though she did take in opportunity to shift just the slightest bit closer to Izuku, which, of course, he didn't notice, though Ruby did, but didn't think to take note of it.

"But she could! Right?" Blake gave the cutest beggar eyes you'd have ever seen, clearly wishing to have that bowl of fish returned to her as soon as possible.

"Well, I think you all definitely earned it after those hard-fought battles," Pyrrha said, cementing her position on the matter as Jaune continued, "Mind if we join you?"

"Don't sweat it! Pull up a chair!" Ruby ushered them to the other side of the stand while the shop runner brought out a twenty-five-minute timer for the challenge, Bakugo intensely glaring at his rival as their unofficial eat off began.

 _(twenty-two minutes later, the food stand, Izuku's POV)_

Izuku happily ate the last piece of the beef bowl challenge that now sat empty in front of him, slapping the timer stop to signify that he was done. At the exact same time, Bakugo slammed his now empty bowl down on the bar, snapping his head towards the green haired boy only to find that he too had finished his meal. Frustrated, Bakugo slammed his head into the bar, creating a visible dent as he yelled in fury, "Oum dammit! Why can I never beat you at anything?!"

"W-w-well, I-I didn't e-exactly win e-e-either, Bakugo, s-so-"

He then lifted his head from said dent and yelled, "SHUT UP, DEKU! I'LL PROVE I'M BETTER THAN YOU, GOT IT?!"

"Then you can duke it WHEN I AM NOT SITTING DIRECTLY BETWEEN THE TWO OF YOU!" Tenya yelled to his partner and, though the ashen blonde was still very much angry, he dropped it, at least for the moment, and went back to silently fuming as he drank his recently ordered water.

"How... just... how did you manage to eat all of that food?" Weiss asked in disbelief.

"Well, you know how most people with Aura have at least a slightly higher metabolism, right?" Izuku began to explain.

"Yes, but what does that have to do with anything?"

"Well, it's pretty simple: the theory goes that if you have a larger Aura, over time you'll receive a higher metabolism to compensate for all the energy it takes to generate it, and therefore become hungrier than normal."

"Okay, first of all: Bakugo's Aura isn't as large as yours, so how did he eat that entire bowl? And second: is that why Shoto snacks all the time and you've recently been ordering such absurd amounts of food?" Weiss asked for further clarification.

"I've been getting really hungry lately, alright?" Izuku defended his eating habits, consoled by a pat on the shoulder, courtesy of Yang.

"I like my snacks," Shoto simply replied.

Though it took Bakugo a bit longer to answer the question posed to him, since he knew that Izuku might answer for him if he didn't, he replied, "I'm a dire wolf. You can figure it out from there."

"That aside, are you entirely sure it was wise to eat before a fight?" Ren asked Pyrrha.

"Of course! It shall give us energy," the redheaded amazon responded with a sweet cheeriness in her voice as the shop runner zoomed around and collected the now empty bowls before going back inside the kitchen, presumably to clean them, which was shortly followed by an echoing burp, curtesy of their copper haired, pink loving teammate.

"Uuugh," Jaune groaned as he laid his head and arms over the bar, "I don't think your metabolism theory applies to me, Izuku. Also, if I barf I'm blaming you, Pyrrha."

 _ **"I think that might be because of me,"**_ Lancelot said as his helmet materialized next to the blonde knight, and continued, _**"Also, I do not think it is wise to put the blame on Ms. Nikos, Master. This was technically your own fault."**_

"Oh! Aim the barf at the enemy!" Nora said with her trademark bubbly enthusiasm with just the barest hint of hostility.

"Nora, that's disgusting!" Ren and Tenya synched, the two briefly glancing at each other and, after several seconds, the former boy continued, "But if you do feel the urge..."

"Got it," Jaune responded before his teammate could finish, which was accompanied by a clearly sarcastic thumbs up.

"Well, we should be off," Pyrrha stood to leave for the coliseum.

"You got your strategies ready?" Izuku asked.

"Well, I think the more accurate question is: are you ready to kick some major butt in the most internationally celebrated broadcast in the history of Remnant?" Ruby asked with far more enthusiasm.

"Of course we are!" Nora answered with a cheeriness that only she and Mei could muster. "We've got a world-renowned fighter on our team, what's basically a ninja, I can bench five of me, and a guy with a freaking giant for a Semblance!"

 _ **"… thank you?"**_

"Anything else? It's better to lay out all your strengths now so that you don't forget them mid fight," Shoto recommended.

Nora then continued, "Okay! Let's see, what else..." she took a thinker position for a few short seconds before she snapped her fingers and said, "We've been training with those new team attacks all year; thank you for the cooler name on that one combo, great leader; our weapons are awesome, Glynda barely yells at us anymore, and we have the best strategist this side of Remnant on our side!"

"That seems like a lot of advantages. You'll likely have the upper hand in most of your battles," Tenya observed.

"Well, they are one of the strongest first year teams in this school. I wouldn't exactly be surprised if they swept this first match without any effort," the blonde brawler gave her two cents on the matter.

"That being said, don't get cocky. Even the most prepared of fighters can be brought down by a well-prepared plan or even a single unknown factor," Weiss warned.

"But we shouldn't be so nervous! The worst that could happen is we lose! Then it's just a few more years of walking around school with everyone knowing that we're failures, our friends will slowly abandon us to preserve their social status, we won't be able to show our faces in class, no one will sit with us in the cafeteria, Ren and I are orphans, we have no home left to go to, and we'll be officially renamed Team LOSE-iper!" Nora laughed just a bit melancholically as she began to turn ironically gray before breaking down into tears and placing her head on the bar, which managed to put the color back into her. How was this possible? She's Nora.

"So... yeah. Feeling pret-ty good," Ren diffused the tension as best he could.

"Don't fret so much about it," the gentle amazon placed her hand on her weeping teammate's shoulder, continuing, "If anything, we should be looking forward to a fight with actual guidelines and not... well... murderers."

"Yeah, don't worry about it. We've dealt with way worse," Yang pointed out.

"How much have we all had to go through, all together?" Izuku asked for a tally count of everything.

Surprisingly, Blake took the lead, "Let's see... Grimm invasions, violent extremists, a destructive sociopath..."

"-those ridiculous tests, Torino's training, airships..." Jaune kept the train a going.

"-an idealistic serial killer, goons from various criminal organizations, and to top it all off, a psychopathic crime boss with a vendetta against All Might," Tenya finished the nigh and considerably long list of things that they'd had to go through.

"Yeah, that about sums it up," Bakugo piped in for a moment before he went back to fuming once more.

"And this was while we're still in training! Ah, imagine what it'll be like after we graduate!" Ruby shouted as enthusiastically as ever.

"Maybe then I'd be able to pay for a meal," Weiss muttered under her breath.

"Hey, why do you have Tempest on you, Greenie?" Yang asked the blazer wearing boy, "You're not fighting for the rest of the day, right?"

"I tried, but it kept insisting on coming with me. Whenever I put it in my locker it just broke out and snapped itself to my back," Izuku admitted with a sheepish smile in his face as he scratched the back of his head.

"It's true. Glynda was freaking pissed from all the damage," Shoto backed up his statement.

"Wait, you weapon talks?!" Ruby zipped over to where Izuku was sitting in a heartbeat with stars in her eyes, an answer to her question clearly desired with great intensity.

"N-n-not in the traditional sense, it kinda just... hums, and I can tell what it wants," Izuku explained as best he could, since he didn't quite know how it worked himself.

"Aw, man," Ruby slumped over in disappointment.

Then, a loud speaker rang out in Port's voice, _"Could Team JNPR please make their way to the coliseum immediately!"_

 _"Yes! Like they were scheduled to do several minutes ago!"_ Oobleck finished.

"We'd better get going now," Pyrrha said as the rest of her team brought themselves up from the bar and began to walk towards the coliseum as Ruby cheered after them, promising to show up to the fighting ring before said fight began.

 _(ten minutes later, Amity Coliseum, general POV)_

It didn't take long to get there, and they found seats for the event rather easily. However, while Izuku could've sworn he saw Emerald, Mercury, and Dabi out of the corner of his eye, he simply shrugged it off and walked over to the place his friends had already picked out.

Meanwhile, Dabi was sitting with his teammates in an area near where the fight was soon to start, Mercury sarcastically wondering out loud, "I wonder who's going to win."

"Tch. Like we don't already know," Emerald quipped back, equally as sarcastic.

"We don't. Though it does seem like this match will go in JNPR's favor," Dabi commented.

"And besides, Mercury," Cinder walked up behind them and plucked a popcorn kernel out of the bucket Mercury held, now wearing her more discrete 'hunter's' outfit: a pair of gray pants and boots, a beige leather, sleeveless jacket with light-beige details, brown gloves, a sarashi tied around her chest and another around her hips, and a pauldron on her left shoulder. She also wore a belt around her waist, which had multiple brown pouches attached to it, presumably holding Dust of some kind. She then continued as she superheated said kernel, "Even though you might know how a story will end doesn't make it any less fun to watch."

The kernel then popped to punctuate her sentence, placing it into her mouth as she took her own seat behind her 'teammates,' waiting patiently for the next round of the tournament to finally begin.

The booming voice of Port sounded throughout the arena, _"Three!"_

BRNZ shifted into their combat positions.

 _"Two!"_

JNPR did the same, and their leader summoned Lancelot's torso almost effortlessly.

 _"One!"_

A single, solitary beat passed for them, like the calm before a storm. And then, like an echoing gunshot, Port's voice bellowed out one final time; _"Begin!"_

And the chaos of battle ensued.

 **A/N: And that's all for this chapter! Hope you enjoyed the extra-long fight scene, I had a fun time writing it. Next time, we'll be delving into JNPR's fight with BRNZ, which should be much more interesting with Lancelot added into the mix.**

 **I don't currently have profiles on Ashido or Tsuyu, I might've had a bit too much fun writing the fight scene, but I'll be sure to get them done by the next chapter! Speaking of-**

 **Next Chapter: Mar. 25th**

 **Seeya in the next one!**


	27. Welcome Back

**A/N: I'm really hoping that the song I picked out fit the mood of the fight. If you have any fight song suggestions be sure to let me know in the reviews!**

 **Also, has anyone else seen the first episode of The Nomad of Nowhere yet? If you haven't, I highly recommend it, it's very funny. It's up on the RT site right now. Oh, and with literally zero context: Skout x Toth is the OTP for this show. Seriously, they're just adorable.**

 **On that note, I have a bit of a brain teaser for you guys. Who are the members of Team MTN and what kingdom are they from? Here's a little hint: they're all from HeroAca. I'll give the answer next chapter, but feel free to guess away in the reviews! Speaking of: Enjoy the Chapter!**

 **Disclaimer: I do not own RWBY or My Hero Academia. They belong to Monty Oum, Kohei Horikoshi, and their respective publishing companies. Please support the official releases.**

 **I do not own the cover image**

Chapter 27: Welcome Back

 **("Flyers" by BRADIO, from Death Parade)**

The two teams rushed for each other almost as soon as Port's shout echoed throughout the arena, the only female member of Team BRNZ running to the forest that had spawned behind them while the rest of them rushed forwards to meet their enemy team with unrelenting force.

Jaune almost immediately activated Crocea Mors' Dust Blade, coating it a frosty blue hue just before the fighting began, the blonde knight quickly clashing with one of the three guys that were running for them, this one in particular having razor sharp spinning disks attached to the backs of his forearms. Said adversary quickly came into contact with the blonde's shield, Jaune angling his primary defense in such a way that the blades slid across it, perfectly creating an opening for Jaune to sidestep him and slash at the ground beneath his opponent, creating a rather slippery patch of ice that caused him to comically flip over and land rather painfully on his back.

He then heard the loud crack of a sniper rifle come from the tree line, Lancelot bringing up his giant longsword as a temporary second shield that the bullet ricocheted off of, cleaving straight through one of the many rocks to their back. Jaune quickly picked out where the shot had come from, shouting to his teammates, "SNIPER! FALL BACK!"

The response was almost immediate, Pyrrha being the first to react with a quick shove to her opponent before she dashed towards the rocks in order to find cover, quickly followed by Ren and Nora, the latter of whom had launched herself over there via a grenade, doubling as a retreating fire to the opposing team.

"Okay, I'm gonna go into Paladin mode. Nora, can you get to the top of the mountain?" At the same moment, a loud clap of thunder rang from atop the mountain, a corresponding lightning bolt arcing to the tip.

"With pleasure!" his bubbly grenadier teammate said with glee, sending a few shells BRNZ's way to ensure that they didn't get the drop on them.

"Okay, me and Lancelot will be running crowd control. Ren, Pyrrha, can you distract that sniper long enough for Nora to get to the top?" Lancelot blocked a few more shots with his sword.

"...sure. Why not?" Ren said in the most sarcastic tone the blonde knight had ever heard him use as he too covered their hiding spot.

"I'll do my best!" Pyrrha responded with the kind of enthusiasm that was only surpassed by people like Nora and Mei. She was really enjoying this battle royale.

"Okay. On my-" a bullet shot through the rock Jaune was hiding behind, merely two inches away from his head. "SCREW IT! JUST GO!"

The effect was immediate, his teammates shooting off in different directions as he sheathed Crocea Mors and clasped his hands together, closing his eyes as he took a more meditative stance, causing Lancelot to fully form in all his ethereal, ghostly glory, pulling down the visor on his now tangible helmet as the ghostly giant stood to his full height and stomped over to the opposing team, promptly terrifying most of them into retreating towards the treeline.

However, this did not deter their sniper, who'd stayed very dead set on keeping Nora as far from the top of their mountain as she could, which, due to the combined efforts of Ren and Pyrrha, didn't go as far as she'd hoped. Their combined gunfire kept her from actually lining up a shot, and though her teammates tried to alleviate this problem, the assaults of both Lancelot and her attacker's own skill proved this effort to be a moot point.

 _ **Are you entirely sure that this plan is going to work, Master?**_ Lancelot asked as he and Jaune stomped at the rather annoying opponents who'd managed to brave themselves up and were now circling his feet. Seriously, when would they learn that their attacks weren't having any effects on his armor?

 _Well, it's admittedly not my best plan, but this is what I've got_ , the blonde knight promptly responded as they made a wide, low reaching sweep with the longsword, discouraging any more of those annoying attacks to their overly armored boots. _Besides, it's working, isn't it?_

It was at this moment that Ren misjudged one of the attacks made towards him, giving his current opponent ample opportunity to deliver a shock to the stoic boy's now exposed torso and causing him to fall over from the electricity.

"REN!" He heard his teammate cry out from the top third of the mountain, which was predictably followed by Nora jumping down from the mountain, rushing to her best friend's side, getting hit by the same rod, charging up from said attack, and sending that attacker across the battlefield and through a rock.

 _...I just had to open my big mouth, didn't I?_

 _ **Coincidence is indeed a playful mistress.**_

"Okay guys, plan B!" Jaune yelled as he switched out of Paladin Mode, unsheathing Crocea Mors as he continued, "Nora, light it up!"

"You got it!" Was all Nora said before she launched grenade after grenade into the treeline, giving their opponents no more room to hide. Specifically the sniper. Those potshots were getting really annoying.

"Ren, help Pyrrha group them together!"

"Got it!" The ninja sped off to help the red headed amazon box them in, which, though there were a few hiccups here and there, they managed to pull off without any noticeable hitches.

"Nora!" Jaune yelled to his other teammate as he finished loading the Dust chamber with lightning Dust, ordering, "We're gonna do the thing!"

She simply responded with a nod and a massive grin on her face, placing herself where the planned attack would likely enact the most damage. The blonde knight then activated the Dust, causing the blade to turn a slight yellow hue as golden lines of electricity ran up to the tip of the blade, then swinging it long ways once to throw the electricity from the blade to Nora, who readily received this most welcome powerup.

"Ren, Pyrrha, get back!" Jaune yelled to his teammates, the ninja making quick haste to get out of the swinging range of Nora's hammer while the redheaded amazon stayed just the slightest bit longer to ensure their opponents wouldn't be able to escape this next attack.

"NORA, SMASH!" The basic but soon to be devastating order was given, and the bubbly grenadier was off like a gunshot, swinging Maginhild in a wide arc as the business end came into hard, echoing contact with the entirety of BRNZ, and as her attack finished, the team had landed rather comically against the dome energy shield that surrounded, two of their Aura's dropping to the red as they did so.

 _"Team JNPR wins by knockout! Literally. Can someone go make sure they're okay?"_

 **(A/N: End Song)**

 _(around the same time, the Crow Bar, Qrow's POV)_

The dark-haired huntsmen sat in silence as he watched the latest victory post for the Vytal Tournament: Some team called JNPR kicking BRNZ's asses. Same old same old with this tournament.

 _Heh. Getting kinda lazy with the names there, 'ey Oz? I mean, seriously: who the hell would name their team after a berry?_ Qrow thought as he drank from his glass of brandy. _Hey, that one kid almost looks like Braun. Huh. So he and Julie really did get hitched. Wonder how he's doing these days?_

"Huh. Those kids weren't half bad," the bartender commented on the fight, to which Qrow simply grunted before downing the last of his current glass and ordering another.

 _(ten minutes later, Amity Coliseum, Shoto's POV)_

The break between matches was a welcome chance for Teams RWBY and STIK to stand and stretch their stiff limbs. It was also the perfect opportunity for Shoto to receive a call on his Scroll. The half and half leader excused himself from the company of his friends to take the call as the majority walked over to the concessions stand and Izuku and Yang walked back to their seats to ensure they weren't taken in the meantime. Hopefully this call wouldn't be one of his father's attempts to convince him to use his left half. Honestly, it was wasted breath at this point. Nothing was going to change his stance on that.

Shoto was then pleasantly surprised to find that the call was instead from his girlfriend, Momo Yaoyorozu. He smiled as he answered the call, "Hey Momo."

 _"Hey Shoto. Sorry I haven't called you lately. My parents have been relentless with all the tutors they've been sending my way,"_ Momo said through the line. This was one of the many things that they could simply talk about: what was crappy about their lives without any fear of reprimand from their respective parents. It wasn't like they could do anything about that either. They were going to talk to each other anyways, so why bother to try and stop them? And one of the many of their conversations were Momo's parents giving her an endless barrage of highly reputed tutors to learn from, or, as had been the case for nearly the entirety of last year, to amaze with her already nigh and considerable array of knowledge.

"Wow. How long did it take to impress this one?" Shoto asked.

 _"About thirty minutes. It's not that they didn't try, I've just learned all that stuff already. They were pretty nice though, not nearly as snooty as some of the other ones I told you about,"_ she said with a tinge of regret in her voice, almost wishing that she could learn about that subject again from this person. However, it wasn't Momo's way to string people into elaborate lies. Unless they really deserved it, then they were fair game.

 _"But enough about me. I saw your fight on TV. You guys were awesome! Those team attacks were the things of modern legend!"_

"Well, I wasn't the only one to come up with them. My teammates each helped in their own way. Especially Izuku. To be entirely honest, sometimes I feel like he's much more cut out to be a leader than I am," Shoto explained a bit sheepishly.

 _"I see. He's the one with the green hair and freckles, right?"_

"Yep, that's him."

 _"He's certainly a clever one, but you have plenty of merits for being qualified as a leader."_

"I know. It's just good to be humble about it sometimes. Don't want to let it go to my head now, do I?"

Momo chuckled at this, a brief silence passing before she continued, _"I really miss you, ya know. I mean, it's nice to talk to you and all, but I... I wish..."_

"… me too. I'll visit you once the tournament wraps up, alright?"

 _"Yeah. I'll talk to you later. I love you."_

"I love you too," Shoto said as he reluctantly hung up, placing his Scroll back into his pocket. Now, the reason they used the 'l-word' was because they'd known each other for a very long time, and though it took a while for them to even start talking to each other initially, they'd eventually fallen for one another. They hadn't gone that far, since neither of them were really ready for it at present, but they did love each other. Despite the things people said were clichés with their relationship, it was theirs, and no one, not even Endeavor, could change that. Shoto then began walking after the majority of their group with a significantly happier look adorning his normally stoic face.

 _(around the same time, Amity Coliseum, Yang's POV)_

Yang and her green haired friend/crush sat next to each other as they waited for their friends to come back from concessions, and they were taking a rather conveniently long time. Maybe Bakugo just ordered too many buckets of popcorn or something...

"So, who do you think is gonna win this next match?" Izuku asked the blonde brawler with an inquisitive look donning his gaze. She'd know the blazer wearing boy long enough to know that this was simply one of the few ways he knew how to start a conversation.

"Well, I want to say that SSSN would win, but I pretty sure that's a biased opinion since it's Sun and Neptune's team. I don't really know enough about NDGO or Sun's other teammates to guess who would come out on top," Yang answered as honestly as she could.

"Hmm... well-" Izuku brought out his notebook and began to scratch down various notes as he began to mumble,"-judging by their weapons, NDGO seems of have the versatility advantage. They basically have all their ranges covered while SSSN is mostly close to mid-ranged combat not to mention the fact that they'vehardlyusedtheirsemblacesiftheyevenhavethemSunseemstobethestrongestpersononhisteamwiththosegunchucksplushisspeedandstrategiesarenearlyunpredictableNeptunehasthemostrangeofthegroupbuteventhennotbyawholelotIdon'tknowverymuchaboutScarletandSagebuttheyseemtobeSSSN'stankandDPSrespectively-"

It was at this moment that Izuku realized that he was going on yet another mumbling tirade, snapping himself out of it as he covered his mouth and apologized for the outburst, "Sorry. I went note-crazy again."

Yang simply chuckled at this, saying, "It's okay. I actually think it's kinda cool. But what's your opinion? Who do you think will win?"

Izuku held his hand under his chin, silently thinking to himself before answering, "Honestly, it's anyone's match at this point. They both have their respective advantages and disadvantages, so it'll really depend on who can exploit the other team's weak points faster."

Yang nodded in agreement before they faded into silence once more. The blonde brawler became rather uncomfortable with it and tried to spark up conversation once more, saying, "Hey, Greenie?"

"Yeah?"

"You know that... if both our teams make it to the final round... we may have to fight each other."

"… I know."

"Well... if that does happen, promise me that you guys won't hold back," Yang asked with determination in her gaze, causing Izuku's eyes to widen in surprise at her bluntness. "If we do fight, we fight for real. Okay?" She held her hand out to the green haired boy, who processed this for several seconds before taking Yang's outstretched hand firmly shaking it, saying, "You got it. And you'd better not pull any punches either."

The blonde brawler then managed to get Izuku into a headlock (finally!) and said, "I wouldn't have it any other way!"

They continued to exchange small talk and banter all the while, continuing until their friends came back and the next match finally began.

 _(ten minutes later, the Crow Bar, Qrow's POV)_

"Now _that_ was a fight," the bartender said with a satisfied smile on his face. Guy probably didn't know much about fighting if he thought what just happened was any good.

"Pfft! _That_ was a mess," Qrow corrected the bartender for what would hopefully be the last time.

"C'mon man. You didn't like them, any of the Vale kids; hell, you didn't even like any of the rounds before that. What fight are you even here for?" the bartender asked in a disbelieving voice.

As if on que, the unique hum of Winter Schnee's ship faded in, causing Qrow to look behind him in order to affirm that he wasn't just hearing things. When he saw the familiar four tailed hovercraft, he turned back to the bartender and simply said, "That one," before standing up and finishing off his drink. The dark-haired huntsman then placed the glass back onto the countertop, saying with a bit of sarcasm, "Happy Vytal Festival," as he left a couple of lien cards to tip the man before walking off with a slight drunken stumble to his step. When he heard a glass shatter behind him, he didn't need to turn around to know that his semblance was acting up again.

 _(somewhere in Northern Vale, around the same time, Ilia's POV)_

 _This entire op is absolute insanity,_ the chameleon faunus thought to herself as she dangled upside-down from a nearby, ludicrously tall pine tree. In her hands were a pair of zooming binoculars with infrared and night vision, curtesy of their new allies who had yet to reveal themselves. Seriously, if they had access to this kind of tech, why hadn't they at least shown their faces? It would certainly give the Fang more reason to trust them. Then again, Adam did say they were humans, so most anyone in the Fang would probably try to kill them on sight.

"How many guards we got over there?" asked her recent ally by the name of Shuichi Igushi, or as he preferred to be called, Spinner. Unlike most other faunus, Spinner held much more physical similarity to his subspecies animal, an iguana, as evidenced by the green scales that made up the entirety of his skin, along with an elongated snout to further emphasize his more bestial nature. His hair was a rather unique shade of pink and would've been about shoulder length if he let it hang loose; though it was spiky, it had been swept backwards so that Spinner could actually see. He was also a devout follower of Stain, and his clothing clearly reflected this reverence: donning a grey, sleeveless shirt and baggy dark pants, along with black boots with dark grey colored soles and metallic, spiked knee guards. He wore a mask made of a long, tattered bandage, with a crimson red scarf hanging from his neck, the tail of which reached the bottom of his back, and he also had bandages wrapped around both his arms, partially covered by black wristbands. He also carried an enormous sword wrapped in cloth on his back, along with a backup machete that was hung around the bottom part of his back. A pair of black goggles were strapped tightly to his forehead and were hidden slightly by the bandage, which completed the outfit.

Ilia finished scanning the place for infrared heat signals and swung herself back onto the top of the branch, answering the iguana faunus' question, "Most of them are on the inside, but there are three guards at the top of the roof and two guarding the lowest entrance. It's a bit more than we expected, but it shouldn't be enough to alter the plan," before she placed the binoculars back into the pouch on her left leg and pulled out two Grimm masks from the small pack on her back, placing the one with small horns on her own face while she handed the one with the elongated nosepiece to Spinner, saying, "You're probably gonna need this."

"Why? I'm not a part of the White Fang. Besides, these things look kinda uncomfortable," Spinner explained his skepticism.

"They're better than they look. Besides, I think that this will probably hide your face better than that bandage you've got on right now," she further extended her hand that held the Grimm mask to him. After a few seconds of mild hesitation, he reluctantly took the mask from Ilia and placed it over his eyes, finding that if fit rather snugly over his snout. "Huh. You were right."

"Told you. Now, let's get going, the op starts in thirty and counting," Ilia said as she hopped silently through the forest with Spinner on her tail who, despite the size of his sword, was being just as quiet as she was. How was this possible? Your guess is as good as mine.

 **(A/N: "Life Will Change" OST from Persona 5, guaranteed to make _anything _ way cooler than it rightly should be. Like this stealth scene, for instance. Enjoy!)**

In a matter of a few short minutes they'd reached the cropping of the lowest wall in the prison via the trees, where two guards could be seen patrolling near the railing, currently unaware of the fate that was about to befall them. Ilia pulled out her rapier/whip, aiming it at the rightmost guard as Spinner pulled a throwing knife from one of his leg pouches and aimed it for the left. They loosed their weapons simultaneously, the guards falling lifeless and silently to the ground. The two then left their cover in the trees and landed near the guards, briefly pausing to chuck the bodies of the dead guards over the edge.

They hid close to the entrance wall to avoid being spotted when they saw the door begin to open, a guard emerging from inside of the prison, whose own face turned to confusion when he saw that there was no one at the entrance. Once the door closed behind him, Ilia didn't hesitate to deliver enough electric shock to the man's body to kill him. Once the Dust had run its course, Spinner grabbed the man's body and threw him off the balcony as they had done with the others. Thank god the upper floor's balcony was set further out then the lower floor, or they would've already been spotted.

Spinner took point at the door, cracking it open slightly to see how many guards were currently patrolling the halls. He signaled back to Ilia, _Two far wall, one each hall wall. Stationary._

The chameleon faunus nodded in acknowledgement, grabbing a smoke bomb from her bag and, once Spinner cracked the door again, pulled the pin and tossed it in. A second later, the compressed vapor billowed out from the container, blinding the guards inside and giving them the opportunity to rush through the door and kill the guards one by one.

Spinner quickly killed the rightmost guard with his machete, slitting the man's throat in a single stroke, spilling his lifeblood onto his front as he was lowered to the floor silently. Ilia similarly ran her own weapon through her target's jugular, which severed feeling from the rest of his body as he was put silently onto the ground. Then, almost in synch, the two faunus' killed the other two guards in the room, Spinner silently beheading the guard on the left with the same machete while Ilia delivered a silent but deadly stream of electricity into the one on the right, killing the man almost instantly.

They proceeded silently through the prison, winding through the halls and taking out guards whenever they had to, though they didn't kill enough to leave a trail of bodies behind, as they slowly made their way to the security room to disable the rest of the internal defenses. But seriously though, who designs a prison where the cameras don't show up until you actually get inside? That makes literally no sense...

They entered the surprisingly empty security room after breaking the lock (thank you advanced software hacking lessons), Spinner locking and guarding the door behind them while Ilia infiltrated the security protocols. After a few seconds of firewall cracking, she was in, and began by disabling the cameras all across the prison to make their jobs significantly easier. Then she disabled the com network, to ensure that the remaining guards wouldn't be able to communicate with each other, before considering disabling the power to the entire building in order to make infiltrating easier. She decided against it, and instead disabled the infrared lasers that were scattered throughout the place as she got out of the system to tell Spinner, "We're in, and I just made our jobs a lot easier."

"Let's just hope that the others are able to disable the relay tower in time. Come on, we're clear," was how Spinner responded, darting out of the room with Ilia hot on his heels, silently advancing once more towards their objective. When they reached the end of the hall, they quickly hid behind a corner to avoid the repositioning guards who were running in the opposite direction of their current objective. They must've noticed Himiko's calling card.

"We've gotta pick up the pace," Spinner said as he slinked down the hallway the guards had just come from, causing Ilia to note the fact that this mission's stealth portion might soon be over with as she paced alongside him, eventually coming to the only cell in the entire prison, and, as seen from the squad of eight guards on the door as they used a mirror to see around the corner, the most heavily guarded place in the entire facility. Though there was something close to sixteen guards before this, so it was a substantial improvement over what they would've faced otherwise.

"Okay, how do you want to-" Spinner began to ask Ilia before he noticed something. Her hands were shaking and covered in blood, enough that she was beginning to lose her grip on the weapon. With concern in his tone, the iguana faunus grabbed one of his partner's hands and asked, "Hey, are you gonna be okay?"

Ilia was then snapped out of her brief trance as she shook her head and took her hand out of his, readjusting the grip she held on her weapon as she said with a shaky voice, "I'll be fine. Just nerves, that's all."

 _Bullshit. You don't get that shaky from just nerves,_ Spinner silently thought to himself as he let his right hand drift over the same shoulder, finding the hilt of his gigantic sword easily as he said, "I'll take the ones at the front. You okay with the two at the back?"

Ilia silently nodded as she made use of her faunus trait to blend into the shaded walls, something she'd forgotten to do for the majority of the mission. She just needed more practice, that was all.

Spinner then darted around the corner and unsheathed his sword; a large, makeshift mess of various blades and knives, held together on an elongated pole by various belts; and laid into the guards viscously and brutally. Blood splattered onto the walls like paint, and various bits of flesh and pieces of limbs littered the floor, the only other two guards on the door now slowly approaching the iguana faunus with terrified looks in their eyes.

However, they never got far, as Ilia came from behind them and quickly slashed one's throat while using her foot to smash her other target into the wall by the neck, crushing his windpipe as she did so. The killing was quick, isolated, and necessary. That was what she kept telling herself.

Spinner, still covered in blood, grabbed the keys off a guard's corpse and flipped through them, eventually finding the ones to the various locks on the door and undoing them. As the final lock was released, the door creaked open slightly, revealing a dark, pitch black room with no windows, where a man missing both his legs and his right arm sat bound to the wall by chains clamped around his torso, stubs, and remaining arm, with violet scales littered throughout his skin like freckles. This was Serpent Saw, former leader of the now abolished Creed of the Serpent sect of the White Fang.

"Sir, we're here to take you back to HQ," Ilia said as she grabbed the keys from Spinner and released the chains that bound this terrifying yet inspiring figure from the White Fang's glory days.

"Really now? Is it time for Vale to fall?" The once gigantic snake faunus asked in a parched, scratchy, and deep voice, implying something that Ilia couldn't quite place.

"In about two weeks, Beacon will be in ruins. Adam Taurus sent us here to retrieve you for the task," Ilia then beckoned Spinner over and hoisted him over the iguana faunus' shoulders, seeing as she was far too physically incapable of carrying him herself.

"Good. If it wasn't, I would've killed you on the spot," was all Serpent Saw said before falling silent once more, an air of seriousness planted obviously within his voice. And he wasn't kidding either.

They rushed out of the cell and down the hall, not bothering to conceal their positions any longer. That part of the mission was over. They winded down corners and dashed up staircases, the elevators were down thanks to Ilia, and now the sound of their escape route landing could vaguely be heard through the walls. They were nearly home free.

Spinner kicked the door to the roof open, not taking even a second to fall back into step with his running as Ilia slammed the door shut and barred the way for any guards that may have followed them. The currently landing Bullhead opened its nearest facing door to reveal Himiko covered in blood with a strange new contraption on her back, no doubt thanks to this often mentioned Mr. Compress she'd heard so much praise for.

They zipped onto the airship almost as soon as it touched down on the prison rooftop, Spinner getting Serpent Saw off of his back and securely into a seat on the airship, while Himiko bubbly skipped off the ship and cheerily asked Ilia through her half mask, "Is there anyone to cut open?"

"No. C'mon, we're going back to Vale HQ," Ilia responded in monotone as she dragged a dejected and rather upset looking Himiko behind her, the Bullhead's door closing behind them as they sped off towards their destination, and the eventual doom of Beacon Academy.

 **A/N: And that's a wrap! Woo! That stealth scene was so much fun to write! Anyhow, thank you guys for reading this, feel free to ask any questions you may have in the reviews. Except about Team MTN. You guys have gotta guess that one on your own. Sorry! ;)**

 **And now, the long awaited and highly coveted profiles:**

 **14- Mina Ashido**

 **Age: 17 (nearly 18)**

 **BDay: 5/21**

 **Handedness: Ambidextrous (prefers right)**

 **Race: Seahorse Faunus**

 **Hair: Pink**

 **Eyes: Yellow with black sclera**

 **Blood Type: AB**

 **Height: 5'5"/165.1cm**

 **Gender: F**

 **Semblance: Acidic Secretion, allows Mina to secrete either cohesive or corrosive acid from every pore on her skin, and also allows her to set various traps and glide around on her feet due to the slipperiness. She is not affected by her own acid, but she tries to use the former rather than the latter, since full on corrosive acid can eat through anyone with Aura like fire through newspaper.**

 **Weapons: Corrosive and Cohesive, a pair of twin bladed wakizashi's/tonfas/machine guns with only two set transformations: Guns out and Guns in.**

 **Fighting Style: Tantojutsu, Tonfa Fighting, Mid-weight weaponry**

 **Range: Close-Mid**

 **15- Tsuyu Asui**

 **Age: 17 (nearly 18)**

 **BDay: 4/09**

 **Handedness: Right (minorly Ambidextrous)**

 **Race: Frog Faunus**

 **Hair: Dark Teal**

 **Eyes: Black**

 **Blood Type: B**

 **Height: 5'1"/154.94cm**

 **Gender: F**

 **Semblance: Undiscovered, Tsuyu had yet to discover her own semblance, but her own faunus biology makes up for that in full.**

 **Weapons: Tongue & Cheek, a pair of dual arm blades/arm mounted bladed whips that can have various types of dust implemented in them for different advantages.**

 **Fighting Style: Whip Fighting, Arm-swordsmanship**

 **Range: Close-Mid (prefers Mid)**

 **These were a long time coming. Sorry I haven't done these in a while, they're just haven't been any opportunities to do so. That and I'm kinda lazy sometimes. Anyway, I hope you enjoyed that chapter.**

 **Next Chapter: Apr. 8th**

 **Seeya in the next one!**


	28. Black Reaper Blues

**A/N: Prepare yourselves for the introduction of Qrow, the drunken badass. Oh, and Winter the Icy Empress, I guess. Also, remember the Big Four from waaaaaay back in Chapter 6? Well, it's about to become relevant again, as you might see by the title. Hope you enjoy!**

 **Also, sorry if the title was a bit odd. It was either down to this or Mighty No. 3, and I thought this one was more appropriate.**

 **Review Responses:**

 **Guest: Ding ding ding! You are correct! Team MTN is indeed none other than the infamous Big Three from HeroAca. They are located in Mistral and should become relevant once we go there and improve on Volume 5. Let's be honest, it definitely wasn't the worst, but it certainly could've been better.**

 **Disclaimer: I do not own RWBY or My Hero Academia. They belong to Monty Oum, Kohei Horikoshi, and their respective publishing companies. Please support the official releases.**

 **I do not own the cover image.**

Chapter 28: Black Reaper Blues

Izuku and Shoto lightly jogged behind Ruby and Weiss, the latter of whom was running (somehow with heels on) to the admittedly gaudy looking ship that was now landing at one of the smaller air ports at the Beacon docks, the former of the two panting as she asked her teammate, "Weiss? Why are we running? Who is _she_?!

"… and why did you drag us along as well?" Shoto asked as Izuku nodded in agreement, currently unable to speak due to the fact that he too was panting, though at a significantly lower volume than Ruby.

"Winter..." was all that Weiss said as she gazed at the airship with longing.

"Your sister?!"

"… never mind, this should be hilarious," Shoto commented with a slight, sly smile on his face, causing Izuku to sweat drop as he thought, _This is probably gonna end badly._

The ship folded in its wings inward as it landed, the small group of four reaching it as the doors opened and the disembarking ramp extended to the ground, and the distinct click of the specialist's shoes echoing against the polished metal as she reached the concrete ground of the dock.

She was a tall young woman, with a fair complexion, white hair and slate blue eyes. Her hair was tied up in a bun at the rear left corner of her head, causing her bangs to fall towards the right side of her face, and leaving a small curled lock of hair that reached below her left ear. Her attire was blue, white and gray colored. It consisted of a white coat with a red brooch, exposed upper arms and black gloves. Her pants had garters incorporated into them. This was one of the top Specialists in the Atlas Army, daughter and former heiress to one of the most powerful companies in the world, and the elder sister of their good and trusted friend, Winter Schnee.

Accompanying her were four Atlesian Knight Model 200s, or simply AK's, as they were often referred to, two walking alongside her as she stepped off the ramp to meet her little sister and her approaching companions.

"Winter! Oh, it's so good to see you!" Weiss greeted her sister with no less enthusiasm than she'd ran here with. Seriously, she wasn't even winded! How was this possible- **NO ONE KNEW! WE GET IT! IT'S NOT CLEVER ANYMORE!**

Okay, okay, jeez...

The white-haired heiress then realized just how informal she was being, briefly curtsying as she corrected herself, "Your presence honors us," causing Ruby and Izuku to become briefly confused as to how they should greet their friend's sibling. Shoto simply stood silently with a small smirk on his face, knowing that despite the uptight army attitude, Winter was indeed a caring person at heart. She'd taught him how to fence, after all, back when she had been enlisted by his father to privately tutor him in the way of the sword whenever she could. Needless to say, they got along fairly well.

"Beacon... it's been quite a while. The air feels... different," Winter said absentmindedly as she gazed at the surrounding architecture with an analytical gaze that only the likes of Izuku could rival.

"Well, it's fall, so I guess it's a little colder," Ruby commented before Weiss punched her over the head, causing the rose themed girl's eyes to go comically white with the pain.

"Hey Winter. How've you been?" Shoto asked as casually as ever.

"Fairly well, thank you for the concern," She answered, just as casually.

"Wait, WHAT?! You two know each other?!" Weiss almost screamed in surprise.

"Well, I did teach him to fence in my spare time."

"So... wait, _you're_ that student she kept mentioning?!" She snapped towards Shoto with surprise in her eyes.

"Well, yeah. I asked her to not tell anybody my name because I didn't want to make a big deal out of it, and I didn't tell you because it would've been kinda awkward," Shoto answered as he scratched the back of his neck.

Weiss pinched the bridge of her nose in frustration of her friend before turning back to Winter with a much kinder smile on her face, asking, "So, what are you doing here?"

"Classified," Winter answered with a quick and snappy tone.

"How long is this going to go on?" Izuku asked his partner, not entirely sure how to react to the situation since he was an only child himself.

"I don't know. Although if the conversations between my other siblings are anything to go by, this could take a while."

Ironically, it was also at this exact moment that their attentions were drawn back to the conversation between the sisters when they heard Winter say, "I'm more than familiar with how the kingdom handles its bureaucracy. That's not why I came."

"Right! I'm sorry," Weiss said in a dejected tone.

"Is she going to be okay?" Izuku asked his partner once more.

"Yeah. She may not look it, but when it comes down to it, Winter really does care about her family. Well, most of them anyway," Shoto said with a knowing tone in his voice.

"Only a novice would ever refer to that as a victory. I counted at least three strikes missed," Winter said before turning to her bots and saying, "Leave us," to her AK escorts, who graciously backed away from the group before she sighed in relief and finally asked her sister, "How have these past few months been treating you?"

Weiss perked up at this, almost immediately responding, "Oh! Splendid! Thank you for asking. I'm currently holding one of the top ranks in the class, and I'm also one top students on the first ear leader boards-"

It was almost immediately after this that they heard Winter smack her sister upside the head, shouting, "Silence, you boob! I don't recall asking about your ranking. I asked how you've been. Are you eating well? Have you taken up any hobbies? Are you making new friends?"

"Well, there's Ruby and Shoto," Weiss pointed to the two, the former giggling slightly as she muttered 'boob' under her breath as she pressed down on the cartoonish bump that had formed on Weiss' forehead. The heiress then noticing that Izuku as well and continued, "Midoriya's more of an acquaintance, really, but he's nice enough. He's a bit... strange, though."

Ruby then turned to her green haired friend, noticing that he was looked rather down at the fact that his note frenzies were being called out, and asked, "Are you just gonna take that?"

"She's not wrong," he answered with his head still sagging as a strange cloud appeared over his head and began to rain on him. How was this possible? I don't know, but some deity somewhere in the world of Remnant was likely laughing at him.

"Greetings Ruby Rose," their attention was drawn to the platinum haired specialist once more as she continued. "I wish to thank you for taking an interest in my sister."

"Oh! Erm... yes! Of course! The honor is in my... court," Ruby said as she tried, and mostly failed, to be polite to her teammate's sister.

Winter only looked at Ruby with an unreadable expression for a few more seconds before she turned to Shoto and said, "It's been a while since your last lesson. Have you been practicing?"

"Every day," Shoto replied, "I still owe you for that beat down you gave me. I think I'm still nursing a bruise or two," he absentmindedly rubbed his shoulder as he said this.

"Very good. I look forward to seeing the results of you time here. Yours as well, Weiss. I can tell by looking that you're not the same girl who used to train with me. On to other matters; I currently have business with the general and your headmaster, as well as some of the teachers here.

"However, I do appear to be rather early. Perhaps you could show me to your quarters in the meantime?" Winter asked with as much disciple as could be expected from an Atlas Specialist. Despite the uptightness of the request, she did appear to be genuinely curious as to the living conditions of her sister.

"Splendid!" Weiss replied as she began to lead her sister to the dorm room that housed her team with a squad of AKs in tow, briefly noting, "And the bunkbeds only look unstable, I promise."

"… Bunkbeds?"

"I'll... er... Shoto, help me with this," Ruby asked the half and half leader across from her.

"Just leave it. They're probably gonna be a while," Shoto replied.

"W-well, we should probably get going too. I've still got some hand to hand stuff to run through if you guys wanna come with," Izuku offered his friends.

"Nah, thanks. I promised Yang I'd play video games with her. I think she's training for a rematch with you, fair warning," Ruby responded.

"The offer sounds fun. Meet you in the ring?" Shoto answered with an eager tone.

"Sure thing!" Izuku said as a man stumbled into his shoulder, hearing a brief but slurred apology come from the man's lips as he walked with a bit of a drunken stumble down the paved road to Beacon Academy.

Izuku and Shoto too began to walk down this path, only for about five seconds of silence to pass before, in front of the conversing partners, was heard the distinct noise of circuitry powering down and metal being ripped apart. They then properly looked ahead, getting a better look at the man who had accidentally bumped into Izuku earlier; the colors were a dead giveaway. He was tall with a thin, lean yet lanky physical form, and rather pale in appearance, with graying, black, slicked back hair that looked reminiscent of feathers, along with dull yet playful red eyes and slight stubble along his jawline. He wore a red cloak that was fairly tattered, with a gray dress shirt with a long tail, a pair of black dress pants, and black dress shoes. He also wore a ring on his right index finger, two other rings on his right ring finger, and a necklace with a crooked cross-shaped pendant. Near the bottom of his back was a currently retracted sword with a guard that looked as though it were made of gears along with a gun mechanism built near the guard, and familiar looking runes ran along the length of the blade; at least, the part they could see. The man in question also held one of the AKs he'd dismantled by the torso, the other laying on the ground by his feet, both now without their heads. Izuku couldn't quite place the reason, but the man across from him somehow felt... familiar. Like he might've seen him before. But where?

"Hey!" He called after the two platinum haired women with undisguised hostility in his voice. He was obviously not a fan of the Schnee family, that much was certain. "Yeah. I'm talking to _you_ , **Ice Queen** ," was all he said before he threw the other AK body to the ground.

"Excuse me!" Weiss yelled to the man she stomped towards him with an angry fume about her, saying, "Do you have any idea who you're talking to?"

The man then placed a hand on the white-haired heiress' head, then saying, "Sssssssshhhhh. Not you," before shoving her to the side and taking a few more steps towards Winter, stopping near the center of the pathway before saying much more harshly than before, " _You_."

 _Wait, is he... but that would be way too much of a coincidence. It's too insane to be true_ , Izuku thought to himself as he watched the confrontation between this man and Winter begin to unfold.

A nearby black bird, he couldn't quite tell if it was a raven or a crow, briefly cawed before the man began to speak again. "Saw that gaudy ship of yours a few minutes ago. Guess you're here too."

"I'm standing right in front of you," Winter answered with all the seriousness she'd shown to the group earlier, though for whatever reason this time it had been amplified beyond what someone would consider to be tolerable in regular conversation.

As if to add insult to metaphorical injury, the man the squinted at Winter before he continued, "That does seem to be the case."

"You realize that you've just destroyed Atlas Military property, do you not?" Winter asked more as a statement than as an actual question.

"Hey, Izuku?" Shoto asked his partner. "Do you have any idea who that guy is? He's really pissing Winter off."

"… maybe. I'm not entirely sure, but it seems like they have a history of some kind," Izuku observed before they heard from the icy empress, "I don't have time for your immature games, **Qrow**."

 _Okay, I've definitely heard that name before. Maybe I wrote it down somewhere?_ Izuku scanned his thoughts for the name only to find no such results immediately popping up. _I'll have to look for it later._

"Wait, you two know each other?" Weiss asked in surprise.

The man, now named Qrow, continued as though he hadn't even heard Weiss, saying, "My fucking Oum, you Atlas Specialists think you're so special, don't you?"

"It's in the title," Winter responded with even colder hostility.

"Well, you know what you really are?" Qrow readjusted his stance, making himself look far more intimidating as he continued, "A buncha sellouts and backstabbers. Just like your boss."

"We should probably leave before things get any worse," Shoto suggested, noticing the crowd that was beginning to gather around the two possibly soon to be combatants. Izuku, however, was entirely focused on the discussion between Winter and Qrow, and if you listened closely enough, you could hear the green haired inheritor mumbling various notes under his breath, so quietly that you wouldn't even hear them if you weren't deliberately listening for them.

"Oh, I heard too. I heard ol' Ironwood decided to finally turn his back on Ozpin."

 _He knows two of the headmasters?! Personally?! Seriously, who is this guy and why does he seem so familiar to me?!_

"Ozpin?" Weiss asked in confusion before Winter placed herself in front of her sister as she ordered, "Weiss, it's time for you to go."

"Listen to big sister, Weiss," Qrow jaded, his voice dripping with undisguised sarcasm as he said, "She'll protect you. Just like Atlas is gonna protect all of us, huh?"

"If you do not hold your tongue-" Winter quickly drew her saber from its hold, "-then I shall gladly remove it!"

Qrow considered this for a few moments before saying, "Alright then," and he swept his bangs back and continued, "Come and take it," sticking out said fleshy non-appendage to taunt his now definite opponent into making the first strike of what was to be a rather long fight.

 _(the same exact moment, the same exact place, Qrow's POV)_

 **(A/N: Whichever song you feel is most appropriate. I've got nothing for this one. If you have any suggestions, feel free to send them to me in the reviews! Fair warning: it's pretty long)**

It was as predictable as it was fast, the white-haired specialist would've appeared to be teleporting to anyone else, as she landed in front of Qrow and almost immediately began with a skewering stab aimed for his head, which was so telegraphed that it may as well have been moving in slow motion, the red eyed reaper only needing to tilt his head slightly to avoid the blow.

She made another for his head, also easily avoided. Another blow, another dodge. And another. And another. And one last skewer, after which he licked a bit of the blade just to piss Winter off a little bit more.

 _And this should tempt her to make a downwards slash_ , Qrow thought as he gave a sarcastic bow to Winter, causing her to make the aforementioned attack towards his seemingly unguarded back.

The clang of steel meeting steel rang throughout the courtyard, Qrow's still retracted weapon, Harbinger, blocking Winter's downward slash with hardly more than a slight tap to angle it upwards. He then spun around brought his weapon to bare and, to add further insult to metaphorical injury, wielded it with his off hand. _This should at least throw her off._

Winter cautiously brought her sword down to match his, which Qrow sarcastically responded to with a light tap on the blade. After a brief tension of seeing who would strike first, Qrow lashed out with several back handed slashes, which Winter expertly back pedaled away from, and they then clashed against each other, Winter glaring with her signature icy stare while Qrow simply gave her a nonchalant grin.

They then began to exchange various blows and attempted slashes; high block, low parry, mid strike, she's behind you now, dodge, aim for her head-

 _My Oum, I don't remember her being this fast. Hmm... this'll be tricky to not take seriously if she goes any faster_ , Qrow briefly thought as they continued to exchange blows across the widened section of the courtyard with blinding speed, only reappearing into normal view when they stopped to briefly clash. Although... there seemed to be one person there who was following them through every single strike and step. His hair was green and naturally curly, with freckles lined on his cheeks and piercing green eyes. It reminded him of someone. Someone he'd hardly stopped thinking of for the longest time; almost as much as Summer, really. But this...

 _Holy shit, is that Hisashi's kid? And why do I feel One for All's power coming from him? Also, what's that presence his weapon's giving off-_

He was quickly brought out of this train of thought when Winter slashed at his head, a strike that he quickly blocked countering with a wayward jab leading into a downward strike which she parried with an upward slash of her own before making a stab towards him, countered with another sideways slash and a flip strike, pushing her back to the narrower section of the courtyard, where Winter made a counter to one of Qrow's lighter overhead slashes and socked him in the face with the guard of her saber.

 _Okay, that was actually a decent punch_ , Qrow thought as he brought his head back to its normal position, a gleaming hunger now present within his eye. Not a lustful hunger, though at certain times he'd felt that one as well. This was the hunger for challenge. _Maybe I can start taking this a bit seriously. Just a bit. If I actually got serious I'd probably kill her. I'm sure Oz wouldn't mind. Glynda maybe, but it's just a courtyard. Who cares if I fuck it up a bit? Oh! Note to self: after this is over, I've gotta find that kid with the green hair. Need to ask him a few things._

The red eyed reaper then brought Harbinger above his head and smashed it into the ground that Winter had just dodged from, causing a notably large crater to form on the once smooth and surprisingly crackless concrete. He then looked up to see Winter jumping back with a cocky smirk on her face, flipping to rebalance herself as she landed back on the ground.

 _Oh no you don't, you frigid bitch!_ Qrow sliced through the nearby lamppost as he thought this, not giving Winter a second to even think. However, she jumped over his form and landed behind him with a cocky smirk on her face, backflipping once more as he widely swung at her. She then landed on Harbinger's blade with that same cocky smirk on her face, backflipping once more as she kicked him in the face.

 _Okay, that was just uncalled for!_ Qrow thought angrily as he threw Harbinger at the 'trunk' of the lamppost that Winter had landed on, causing her to jump even higher and land on top of one of the nearer lights. This was a short-lived respite as Qrow tore his weapon from the 'trunk' and brought Harbinger's dual shotgun barrels to bare, firing at the white-haired specialist and causing her to once again backflip away, this time towards the beginning of one of the concrete arches that outlined Beacon Academy.

 _Okay, are you entirely sure that your Semblance is actually glyphs? It seems to just be an ability that lets you flip everywhere and land perfectly_ , Qrow thought in an annoyed tone, catching another glare from Winter before she ran up the arch with the red eyed reaper hot on her tail, firing shell after shell of buckshot towards her, each of them just barely missing her feet.

Qrow then hopped onto one of the lower arches and continued to fire on her, only for Winter to throw down some kind of smoke screen in the middle of her path. This caused Qrow to abruptly stop and look intently at the cloud, retracting his shotgun as he did so.

He wasn't disappointed, as it hardly even took a second for her to fly out of the cloud and begin shooting right towards him. Anticipating quite the impact coming his way, he held Harbinger in the standard two-handed grip, preparing for a full-on strike as Winter popped a parrying stiletto dagger from the hilt of her saber.

The strike met Harbinger's edge full force, causing a large crack to appear in the concrete below Qrow before they were both flung off the arch and back onto the ground. The melee began once again with Winter giving significantly deadlier slashes with the added addition of her nearly unpredictable off hand.

 _This is why I hate fighting anyone who's ambidextrous_ , Qrow thought as he was launched back to the widened section of the courtyard, stabbing and ragging Harbinger into the concrete in order to slow himself down, stopping near the center as he brought into a backhanded grip with a cocky smirk on his face. Then again, this is getting kinda fun.

A brief glance to the side let him see the same green haired boy from before frantically scribbling down notes in a notebook with some sort of title heading on the cover written in messy lettering. If he wasn't currently holding Harbinger in his right hand, Qrow would've been tempted to take that hand and face palm himself with it. _Either this is some stupid coincidence or you passed your habits on to your kid. I'm betting on the latter._

His attention was then brought back to Winter as she stabbed her saber into the ground, a glyph appearing beneath her as she summoned a flock of newborn Nevermores and sent them flying for the red eyed reaper in question, kicking up a gust that pushed him back ever so slightly as the bodies of the ghostly birds began ton pepper his form.

 _Okay, this is just annoying_. Qrow thought as he swung Harbinger upwards, creating something akin to an energy slash that was aimed right for Winter, and she just barely managed to avoid it.

After this attack was made, the white-haired specialist made a glyph form behind her, her face shifting from frustrated to one of intense concentration. Qrow, with a similar look, began to shift Harbinger into its scythe form, various pieces of the blade splitting apart as the main body itself began to shape into a curve into another, far deadlier edge.

Qrow's eyes then flashed in recognition, knowing that he would be going too far if he used his scythe on Winter. She was incredibly skilled, no one could deny that, but he doubted that she could last for long against him if he even began to really get serious. So, with a silent smile he canceled the transformation and placed Harbinger back onto its original resting place.

 _If I'm predicting this correctly, she'll come flying at me in a fit of murderous rage_ , Qrow thought as he taunted Winter by gingerly exposing his cheek towards her and making a 'come at me' gesture towards it.

This predictably made the white haired specialist scream in pure rage as she launched herself with speed that surprised even Ruby, her saber aimed right for the red eyed reaper's jugular before a loud, definitive yell cried out from behind her, causing her to stop just inches away from Qrow's throat.

 **"SCHNEE!"**

 _Heh. Right on time, Jimmy_. Qrow thought as Winter lowered her saber from his neck and snapped to attention almost immediately, their fight now an afterthought to their implications. Then he realized the amount of talking he was in for, though his face gave away no such realization, as he continued in his thoughts, _Well, shit. Guess I'll have to find that kid later._

 **(A/N: End whichever song you're playing. Or don't, whatever you prefer)**

 _(the exact same moment, the exact same place, Shoto's POV)_

 _That was certainly quite the fight_ , the half and half leader thought to himself as he watched his fencing tutor get lectured by her direct superior, General Ironwood himself. _Still, who's that other guy? Izuku said he looked familiar, so he must've been on TV at some point, at least_.

"He started the altercation, sir!"

Shoto then tuned back in to the conversation, hearing the red eyed reaper say, "That's actually not true. She attacked first."

Izuku then looked up from his hastily scribbled down notes, likely involving many of the man's swordplay techniques, muttering, "Well, he's not wrong."

"And you," Ironwood said in a harsh tone, stepping closer as he continued, "What the hell do you think you're doing here?"

"I could ask you the same thing, Jimmy," Qrow said with the same nonchalant smirk on his face.

"I-"

"Now, now everyone," the calm voice of Beacons headmaster rang throughout the courtyard as he approached with his signature coffee mug in hand with Goodwitch and Aizawa at his back, further explaining, "There is a sanction fight happening not very far from here, at the coliseum. And I can assure you that it has better seats than this, as well as popcorn."

"Please leave the premises immediately! We shall take care of this mess," Goodwitch said with far more hostility in her voice though it was accidental.

"Just do what she says and we can fix up the courtyard," Aizawa said in his normal deadpan, after which many of the former spectators began to file out of the courtyard and wandered about aimlessly; at least as far as they could tell.

"Hey, isn't that the girl who was with Ruby before we went to the docks?" His freckled teammate asked as they saw their rose themed friend wave goodbye to Penny, who they hadn't seen since the aforementioned dock incident.

"I think so. I also heard she managed to get into the doubles round without much effort, so if we're up against her next round, I'd get ready for a tough fight. Although... she did manage to basically beat down all those goons and even two Bullheads without so much as breaking a sweat, so..."

"We have no way of beating her?"

"I'll think of one. No one's unbeatable. With the exception of All Might, at least."

 _And there's the fanboy I know and treasure like a brother._

"UNCLE QROOOOOWWW!" They heard Ruby yell at a high volume as she zoomed over and latched onto Qrow's arm. He lifted the arm without much effort at all as his apparent niece responded, "Hi.

"Ahh! It's so good to see you! Did you miss me? Did you miss me?!"

There was only a second of odd silence before the red eyed reaper responded in a playful tone, "Nope," as a similar smile played out across his face and caused Ruby's grin to widen even further. He nuzzled her hair with his free hand, an affection that could only be given by an incredibly close family member. Shoto's faced briefly flashed with jealousy as he remembered a time when he was younger, when his mother would do the same to him whenever he was being particularly silly.

"Qrow!" His attention was retaken by Ozpin, causing Ruby to drop from his arm with an audible grunt, and as Glynda repaired the bridge behind him, he continued, "A word, please?"

The red eyed reaper then leaned down to his niece and whispered, "I think I'm in trouble."

"Hey, you still up for training?" Shoto asked.

"Yep! Just gonna ask Ruby a quick question or two first," Izuku said as he walked over to his rose themed friend with an enthusiasm that he wasn't able to hide.

"I swear, if Ruby rubs this fight in my face, I'll never let her hear the end of it," Weiss silently vented as she stood next to the half and half leader while the two in question spoke at length, the subject presumably being Ruby's uncle.

"He did kinda kick Winter's ass, though," Shoto pointed out.

"That was a draw, at best," the white-haired heiress said with a huff.

 _(Izuku's POV)_

"Who was that guy? You said he was your uncle, and I could've sworn I'd heard his name somewhere before..." Izuku asked Ruby with an intrigued look on his face, and though he managed to contain himself, his mind was abuzz with almost nonstop excitement

"Yeah, he's my uncle, Qrow Branwen. Taught me how to fight too! I think you two would get along. I mean, you've got similar weapons, so that's definitely a good topic," she gestured to Tempest, which was still sitting snugly in the same position on Izuku's back.

"But I don't think his real name is that well known. I never paid much attention to the headlines, but apparently he's called something like... Black Reaper, I think?"

For the first time since she'd met the green haired boy, Izuku managed to fumble his notes in pure, unfiltered surprise. Not quite convinced, he questioned once more, "Are you sure?"

"Positive. Why? Is something wrong?" Ruby tilted her head in confusion.

"If he's really here, and those two are here too, then that means... no way, it's too convenient. The chances of three of them being in the same place are just too low unless this is some sort of cosmic coincidence or something..." Izuku muttered this and various other things under his breath, and, to Ruby's knowledge, he didn't even stop to inhale.

"Izuku!" Her volume caused him to flinch and realize that he went into yet another mumbling frenzy. "Sorry about that."

"Nevermind that, what's got you so surprised?"

"Well..." Izuku leaned in clsoe and lowered his tone so that only his rose themed friend would be able to hear his, continuing in a tone that left no doubt of his seriousness, "… this is probably going to shock you, but if your uncle is who you say he is, then this Vytal Festival is the largest gathering of the Big Four in the last decade."

This caused Ruby's eyes to widen in shock and stutter uncontrollably before passing out on the ground, almost immediately causing Izuku to worry and, after a trying to wake her up to no avail, shurgged her over his shoulder and promptly began rushing to Team RWBY's dorm with all haste with Weiss and Shoto trailing behind him.

 _(Ozpin's tower, about ten minutes later, Qrow's POV)_

The elevator ride up to Ozpin's office was silent, as Qrow expected it would be. Glynda's glare was a bit unnerving, but it wasn't anything that he hadn't dealt with previously. The doors opened to a pacing Winter, a fuming Ironwood, and an always smiling (in his current form, at least) All Might, though he could sense some form of disappointment being directed his way.

He shrugged it off as he and the others entered, Winter almost immediately shouting, "What the hell were you thinking?!"

"If you were one of my men, I would have you shot!" Ironwood said with a rather angered look now adorning his features.

"If I was ever one of your men, I'd have shot myself a long time ago. Save you the ammo," Qrow responded as he took a sip from his scratched up, slightly dented flask with the leather that held his symbol: that of a single eye made of gears and an outline made of a single, black wing.

 **"Now, now you two. There's no need for this kind of hostility between allies, is there?"** All Might asked in his iconic voice, though Qrow could tell from experience that it was incredibly strained.

"He has a point, ya know. I don't like Atlas either, but that was a bit harsh. Even if she _is_ a specialist," Aizawa helped the ginning man's argument, though he held contempt in his tone.

Glynda then turned to Winter and said, "While I certainly wouldn't condone his behavior, retaliating the way you did only made things worse."

"He was drunk!"

"When is he _not_ drunk?" Glynda and Aizawa said in simultaneous deadpan. They then turned to find that Qrow was currently taking rather large gulps from his flask, the red eyed reaper suddenly stopping and holding the bottle away from himself like it was something disgusting even though he wanted even more of it.

Ozpin then sighed as he sat down in his chair and asked, "Qrow, why are you here?"

"You've been out of contact for weeks! You can't just go dark like that in the field!" Ironwood attempted to berate the red eyed reaper, though it did nothing but annoy him.

"I'm not one of your special ops, Jimmy."

" _General_ ," Winter stepped forward defensively as she said this.

"Who the hell cares?" Qrow responded in kind.

 **"I understand that you're a bit... stressed at the moment, Mr. Branwen, but it would help a great deal if you could simply tell us why you're here,"** All Might asked with a far kinder tone than Ironwood.

Qrow then rubbed his temples with his left hand, looking back up as he answered, "Oz sent me to get intel on our enemy, and I'm telling you that our enemy is here."

There was an awkward silence that persisted throughout the room before Ironwood leaned against Ozpin's desk and said, "We know."

"Oh! Oh, you know. Well, thank Oum I'm out there risking my life to keep you all informed!" Qrow said with an undeniable amount of hostility, aimed specifically at Ironwood.

*Sigh* "Qrow-"

"Communication's a two-way street, pal," he then pulled out his Scroll, "You see this? That's the _send button_!"

There was an uncomfortable silence for several seconds after that, which was only broken when Aizawa spoke up, saying, "He has a point, ya know. We should've at least attempted to contact him before all this happened."

"They had reason to assume he was compromised," Winter objected.

"And I have reason to assume that you don't need to be here. Seriously, who the hell invited her?" Qrow asked, knowing full well that the white-haired specialist couldn't quite be trusted with everything that they knew just yet. Oh well. He didn't trust her anyway. And from the looks of things, neither did Aizawa.

"Schnee, we will discuss this incident back on my ship," Ironwood said with finality in his tone.

"But sir-"

"Winter. Leave."

With a rather reluctant look on her face, she simply faced her superior, saluted him, and answered, "Yes, sir," before doing a one eighty on her heel and walking to the elevator, only briefly stopping to glare at Qrow as she continued to the exit.

As soon as they were certain that Winter was out of ear shot, All Might let go of his powered form, his suit, once barely able to contain his form, now overly baggy and far too large for him to wear. "That was kinda harsh, Qrow. She wanted to help us."

"I know. Problem is, I don't exactly have the highest opinion of specialists. To make matters worse: she's a Schnee. She may not be her father, but if there's one thing she inherited from that greedy bastard, it's his drive."

"That's not what were here to discuss. Please, go on Qrow," Ironwood said with impatience.

"This infiltrator isn't another pawn like the others we've dealt with over the years," he turned and took another swig from his flask as he continued, "They're the ones responsible for Autumn's condition."

This caused everyone else's eyes to widen with surprise, Goodwitch uttering, "What?!" under her breath. Aizawa, though he did not voice this opinion alooud, seemed to be thinking the exact same thing, if his normally neutral expression being overtaken by surprise was anything to go by. Ironwood simply remained stoic while Ozpin only gripped his coffee mug even tighter. And Toshinori? Well, he was downright pissed, if his clenched fists were anything to go by.

Qrow finished drinking from his flask, turning back to the gathered group and began a speech that seemed to be directed specifically at Ironwood. "Despite what the world thinks, we're not just teachers, or generals or headmasters. Or even symbols of hope and justice itself. The people in this room, the leaders of the other academies, we've had to keep people safe from things the rest of the world doesn't even know about. It's why we've stayed in the shadows, why we've always met behind closed doors, so you tell me, Jimmy. When you brought half of your army to Vale, did you think you were being discreet? Or did you just not give a flying fuck about the implications of a massive armed force showing up in the middle of a peace festival?!"

This was followed by several seconds of uncomfortable silence, the others in the room waiting for the general to answer Qrow's practical declaration of war. When he finally did answer, it was in the same monotone that he usually used, saying, "Discreet wasn't working."

He placed his own Scroll on Ozpin's desk, causing a hologram to load and appear in to room as a hologram as he continued as he walked from the desk to the projection, "I'm here because this is what we needed."

"Bullshit," Aizawa said with a rather hostile look in his eye, surprising everyone in the room aside from Ozpin and Toshinori as he continued, "You're only here because Ozpin wanted you here. I still don't know why he let you into this in the first place."

"And I am grateful for the secrets and the truth that he's shared with me, with all of us," Ironwood attempted to defend himself.

"Oh, well you've got a really odd way of showing that gratitude," Qrow gave his two cents on the matter.

"The people of Vale needed someone who would act. Someone who could cover more ground than even All Might. No offense, Toshinori, but you simply can't be everywhere at once, even if you are incredibly fast. When they look to the sky and see my fleet, they feel safe. And our enemies will feel our strength."

This only caused Qrow to chuckle, which grew into a full-blown laugh as he continued, "Y-you, you think they're scared of your little ships?! Me and Aizawa? We've had to sift through the Grimmlands, we've seen the things she's made, and I'm telling you: They. _**Are**_. Fear."

Ironwood looked to the disheveled man for confirmation, to which he replied, "It's been a while since I've gone on patrol out there, but he's not wrong. In fact, I don't think there are enough words in all the languages on Remnant to express the horrors she's... experimented with over the years. So yeah: they're fear alright."

"And fear will only bring the Grimm," Ozpin said as he stood from his chair, "Thus, the cycle of hatred and violence will respark and spin out of control. Again. And we may not survive if it does."

Toshinori then took a long sip from his own coffee cup, then saying, "I get what you're trying to accomplish here James: intimidate the enemy and reassure the citizens, it's psychological tactics 101. But this strategy could be catastrophic for _everyone in Vale_ if it backfires. And like you said earlier, I'm fast, but speed isn't my specialty, and even if it was, I can't be everywhere at once. If this backfires, a lot of people could die."

Then Aizawa continued, "I don't care what you think you were doing, bringing half of your army here, but the reason doesn't matter anymore. If you really wanted to make Vale feel safe, you needed a guardian, a symbol of peace and comfort. And All Might has done a damn fine job of being just that for the past few years. Armies are symbols of war and death. There's been plenty of talking among the people for them to piece together this question, even if no one to my knowledge has yet voiced it. If this army is what we need to defend ourselves, if this is the biggest gathering of Big Four members in years, if this is the largest tournament involving hunter and huntress recruits since the festival began, just what the hell are we going up against?"

Ironwood scanned the room and noticed that all eyes were on him, expecting an answer of some kind. He simply sighed, walked over to Ozpin's desk, picked up his Scroll, and began to walk for the elevator doors, only stopping halfway to ask, "So, what would you suggest we do?"

"Personally, I suggest we do two things. First: we must find a new candidate for the Fall Maiden, before Autumn is... no longer with us. And second: we must bring Toshinori's successor up to speed on the current situation as soon as possible, and, if necessary, prepare him for the worst-case scenario."

This got everyone's attention, causing everyone except Ozpin to look at Toshinori with either confusion, surprise, or a mixture of the two.

"What's he talking about?" Asked Goodwitch, and though he did not voice it, Aizawa appeared to be asking the same question, if his expression was anything to go by.

"You... you can't be serious. You've already chosen?" Ironwood asked Toshinori, his normally stoic face now wide with shock.

And Qrow? He just asked, "Wait, are they a kid about yay high with green hair and freckles? And a sword that gave off this... weird presence?"

"… yeah, that's Izuku. But how did you know?"

"I sensed him when I was fighting with Winter. Seems like a sharp kid, even if he's a bit... odd. And I'm pretty sure that his dad's Hisashi Midoriya. He looks fairly similar, so I wouldn't be surprised. Still why would you-"

"Okay, hold on," Aizawa said before they could discuss Izuku any further. "Could someone please tell me just what the hell you're talking about?"

"I'm curious as well," Glynda said with an intrigued look behind her glasses.

Toshinori was silent for a bit before he walked over to the side of the room, grabbed a couple of chairs, and set them down, going back briefly for another so that he could sit as well. Now resting in the surprisingly comfortable chair, he said, "You might want to sit down for this. It's a really long story."

 _(meanwhile, in Team CDEM's dorm room, Dabi's POV)_

"And you're certain?" Cinder asked Mercury for what seemed to be the something hundredth time in the past minute.

"Bad hair, used a sword/scythe combo, and smelled like my dad after a long day. It was definitely him," Mercury said with a tone that used not even a speck of sarcasm, an extremely rare thing to ever hear from someone like him.

"So, what now?" Emerald asked with a hint of fear behind her eyes. They'd clearly faced this man before, otherwise they wouldn't even be having this discussion. Dabi, however, only silently observed the conversation, sitting in his usual corner, cleaning and sharpening Purgatory, as he usually did, while his 'leader' pace throughout the room with a seemingly calm demeanor.

And it seemed that it truly was calm, as she simply responded, "Nothing. Things might move a little slower now, but it other than that, our plans shouldn't be hindered. Besides, they have no idea who we really are, so there's no reason to worry."

Dabi sighed and finally spoke, "Arrogance has lend to the downfall of many an ambitious rebel. Don't underestimate them. And don't forget that now, with the addition of this Qrow person, three of the Big Four are in Vale. If this backfires, some of us won't be leaving here without cuffs. Or maybe even our lives."

"I know, Dabi, but they haven't even the slightest inclination as to our true identities. And the last of the technical heavy lifting is being taken care of by our dear old friend Watts," Cinder responded as she walked over to the desk with her Scroll, her signature cocky smirk ever present on her face as she swiped through the info. "Hmm. Speaking of: we appear to have a new access point."

"Anywhere good?" Emerald asked.

"You could say that," Cinder said before she locked eyes with Dabi, who had just finished work on Purgatory, and continued, "You two, go to your rooms. I need to talk with Dabi."

"Yes ma'am," Emerald said, though Dabi sensed reluctance in her voice.

"Got it," was all Mercury said before he and his partner got up and left the room, the door closing with a barely audible click behind them.

Cinder sighed as she walked over to Dabi and sat down in front of him with her legs crossed. This actually surprised him, since she'd only actually bothered to get close to him to keep up appearances. Then, she asked a question he'd hoped no one would ever ask;

"Why are you so scared of Atlas? They're nothing against the power my master wields, so tell me: what is it that terrifies you about that barren land of science?"

Maybe he never expected it to be voiced the way that Cinder had, nor did she seem to show any concern when she asked it. She was looking for a weak point. Something to exploit. How typical of her.

"I have nothing to say. Not to you," Dabi said as he stood up and began to walk towards the door, stopping as he reached the handle and said over his shoulder, "But I will give you a warning. People say that Grimm are the real monsters, but trust me. There are far worse things than Grimm in this world. And plenty of them live in Atlas."

He then left the room to a now alone Cinder who, if he was guessing right, was selecting the matchups for the doubles round in the next two days. Oh well.

It wasn't like that outcomes affected him anyhow.

 **A/N: Aaaaaand that's a wrap! I hope you enjoyed! It was actually a lot of fun writing Qrow's thoughts during his fight with Winter. They might not be entirely in character, so let me know if I made any mistakes in the reviews! Seriously, it helps out a lot, and I can never thank you guys enough for the support you show. You're all awesome!**

 **Next Chapter: Apr. 22nd**

 **Seeya in the next one!**


	29. Lessons and Leaps

**A/N: Training chapter! Training chapter! TRAINING CHAPTER! AND 60,000 TOTAL VIEWS! I'M NOT WORTHYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYY! THANK YOU ALL SO MUCH!**

 **…**

 ***Ahem!* Sorry about that. I have a bit of an obsession with Shonen training arcs. When they're done right, they can be one of the most enjoyable things about a show/manga. Speaking of which, why was the bulk of the training left out of Volume 5? WHY?! IT'S NOT THAT HARD TO DO! Well, maybe to animate, but not to write!**

 **That said, I hope you enjoy the chapter! Feel free to give criticism in the reviews! I'm certainly not perfect, and if you think I could improve in a particular aspect, please call it out. I honestly don't have enough words in my vocabulary to thank you guys enough for the support you've shown this story. I'll do what I can to live up to your expectations!**

 **Review Responses:**

 **Guest: Err... well... that's kinda spoiler territory. Sorry, but you'll just have to wait and see. But I promise that if it does happen (and that is a very big IF at the moment) it won't be played up for shock value. Those two *SPOILERS* affected everyone involved, so I don't want to play it up for shock value.**

 **Guest 3 (you'll see why): Yes. While I'm still trying to catch up on the manga, from what little I've seen of those two they need to be in this story at some point.**

 **Red John: It's pronounced Mountain (I know, the team name spelling gets confusing for me too) but Mint is actually a really good idea for a team name. Maybe I should've used that instead?**

 **Actually, this one's up to you guys. Should the Big Three (not to be confused with this story's 'Big Four,' I mean the ones from the HeroAca canon) be renamed to Mint (MNT)? Or should they keep the name Mountain (MTN)? Let me know! I'll rename it to whichever one gets the most votes in the reviews. Speaking of-**

 **The rest of the review responses are going to be at the bottom of the chapter since they're so long and I didn't want to miss any details. Seeya down there!**

 **Disclaimer: I do not own RWBY or My Hero Academia. They belong to Monty Oum, Kohei Horikoshi, and their respective publishing companies. Please support the official releases.**

 **I do not own the cover image**

Chapter 29: Lessons and Leaps

The roars and cheers of the crowd drowned out almost all other sounds within the coliseum as the first of the doubles matchup was announced through the bellowing, deep voice of Peter Port. Izuku and Tenya sat next to RWBY as the former silently prepped his notebooks, specifically hoping to get a look at Mercury's fighting style to possibly take a few moves and improve his own. If nothing else, this tournament was proving to be quite the place for fight analysis. JNPR was currently elsewhere, likely giving just as much support to their two friends as they were.

 _"Emerald and Mercury of Haven! Versus! Coco and Yatsuhashi of Beacon!"_ They heard the aforementioned potbellied teacher announce as two aforementioned pairs stood opposite from each other, the arena beginning to randomize the terrain while the pairs minorly conversed. What they were conversing about, Izuku did not know, he was simply waiting for the fight to start and scribble down notes.

The roulettes eventually came to a stop on various terrains, stopping on a savanna plain filled with tall grass, a small patch of forest and greenery, a patch of rough, rocky terrain with various superheated water geysers scattered throughout, and what looked to be a set of ruined buildings. Emerald and Mercury then slowly backed into the tall grass of the savanna, their forms disappearing from sight almost immediately.

Coco, however, had the perfect solution to this, shifting Cream and Sugar into its minigun form and, in a bit of an unorthodox way, mowed down the grass to the point that no one would be able to hide in it. When she'd finished the job, a few stray bullets hit the forcefield. As they echoed on the invisible barrier, she yelled, "Sorry about that!" as her weapon cooled down from the spray.

"You really should be more careful when you shoot that many rounds, Coco," Yatsu said as he prepared his greatsword for the confrontation that was soon to happen.

"I know, I know, it's a problem. Grimm don't exactly take much aiming to hit with this thing, ya know," Coco replied as she too readied her weapon. The opposing pair didn't reveal themselves for a rather disorienting amount of time, causing the two that _were_ visible to glance around for a few seconds, trying to find their intended marks before suddenly, Mercury came back into view as he dropped in from above.

Yatsu then pushed his leader out of the way as he raised his greatsword and blocked the incoming blow from Mercury head on, a loud echo of what could almost be mistaken for thunder echoing throughout the arena from the impact point. The gunmetal haired boy then leapt off of Yatsu's greatsword and, with a rather fancy display of acrobatics, landed about forty feet away from them with his combat stance at the ready.

"That was one strong attack. Hmm... maybe I should be taking notes as well?" Tenya said under his breath.

"I wouldn't worry about that, Spectacles. Greenie's got it covered," Yang said as she gestured to Izuku, who sat between the two as he continued his note-taking frenzy as the fight continued, his eyes clearly following Mercury as he continued to lay waste to the duo in close quarters. To be clear, Izuku did want Coco and Yatsu to win, but whenever he saw an opportunity to collect useful information, he took it.

Blake then began to comment, "They are pretty detailed-" before their attention was then brought back to the fight when Mercury managed to get both of them into a grapple, causing Coco's minigun to be pointed directly into Yatsu's stomach. This only caused Coco to get pissed, turning Cream & Sugar back into a handbag and then attempted to backhand Mercury with it, causing him to flip backward in order to avoid the blow, then launching two rockets from his boots that the pair in front of him managed to deflect without too much effort.

However, this only gave the gunmetal themed boy time to charge up one of his more forceful attacks. It was seemingly meant to be used as an all or nothing move, but as he launched the volley towards his opponents, it was clear that it was meant more as a smokescreen of sorts, and as they recovered from the volley, Mercury had plenty of time to zoom behind them with hardly a sound beneath his feet, grabbing the pairs arms and splitting them for what would be a rather relentless and brutal beatdown.

"Damn, that's gotta hurt," Yang said as she and the others, with the exception of Izuku (in the midst of his note-taking frenzy), winced audibly as the gunmetal themed boy kicked the absolute crap out of Coco, finishing his attack with a well-placed kick to the back of her head, forcing Coco to land rather painfully onto her back.

"She'll be okay. Coco took way worse when we were training at Torino's," Ruby said before the aforementioned beret sporting girl then had a lengthy chain wrapped around her lower torso and was pulled into the heavily obscured forest, which allowed almost no view of the two combatants within, causing her to gain a worrisome expression once more.

"Yatsu, look out!" Tenya tried to warn the swordsman too late as the kick that Mercury aimed at his head struck true, though this gave him no impediment as he grabbed his attacker out of the air and swung him towards the geyser filled terrain before jumping up into the air and slamming his greatsword into his opponent with a great, echoing clash as the edge of his blade met the soles of Mercury's boots, causing a shockwave to flash out from them and split various cracks into the ground as the pressure caused the steam beneath them to partially erupt from a few of the cracks and several of the proper geysers.

"Come on Yatsu! You can do it!" Velvet yelled with rather intense enthusiasm, her teammate focusing intently on the forest as he tried his best to observe his partner's fight with Emerald. Meanwhile, Yatsu and Mercury exchanged various attacks, the swordsman trying the best he could to block and counter the martial artist's kicks with timed slashes and strafes, which worked until the steel botted boy managed to get past Yatsu's sword and backflip-kick him straight in the chin, causing him to fall back onto the rocky terrain. This also placed his head almost perfectly over one of the vents, where he was promptly blasted with steam, blinding the swordsman as he rose from the ground. He managed to shake off the blindness only for Mercury to run up to him, flip, and ax kick the swordsman straight in the face, simultaneously breaking his Aura.

"Okay, forget what I said earlier; he's probably gonna be feeling that for a week, at least," Yang said as she visibly flinched at the impact, taking note of the attack as something to look out for in the future. If it could break someone's Aura like _that_ , she'd hate to see what would happen if it was taken straight on.

Izuku sighed heavily as he closed his notebook, his notetaking frenzy now floating to the back of his thoughts to go over at a later time. As he refocused, he was suddenly filled with frustration that Yatsu hadn't won. Yes, he was a data analyst at heart, but they were his friends, and it upset him to see them lose. Hopefully Coco cold pull through.

 _Oh crap, Coco!_ Izuku thought as he scanned the treeline for the coffee themed girl, his worry only growing when he found no trace of either combatant within the forest. _C'mon, where is she-_

It was almost at this exact same, ironic moment, that Izuku received a splitting headache, causing him to screw his eyes shut and put his hands to his forehead in an attempt to quell the pain. When he managed to open his eyes again, the environment seemed to be almost bleached into a dull, undetailed gray, to the point that he almost thought that night had come far too early. Then he noticed that throughout the crowd, there were burning flames of white, specifically towards the middle of their torsos. A brief shift of his gave showed him a few of his friends; but theirs weren't unidentifiable flames, not even close. Theirs encased their entire bodies, a bright display and diversity of color now present before him.

However, he had no time to see which color belonged to whom, as his attention was again brought down to the arena where Coco was still fighting. Once he managed to identify her; a rather loud and outspoken shade of bronze being her color; the green haired boy saw what looked to be some kind of apparition behind her; of what or who he didn't know. All he did know was that it was distracting her and her actual opponent was elsewhere in the forest, off to her right to be specific, and beginning to angle themselves behind her.

He tried to call out to her, warn her of the impending danger that she couldn't see. But as he attempted to open his mouth, the pain came back, causing him to screw his eyes shut once more. When he managed to open the again, Coco had already been flung out of the forest and into the open ring where Yatsu also laid, both with broken Auras and currently unconscious.

"-eenie? Hey, Greenie!" Yang tried to get the boy's attention, succeeding this time as Izuku snapped his attention towards the blonde with a bit of a fearful and confused look in his gaze, which then turned to concern as he asked, "What's wrong?"

The blonde brawler sighed as she said, "That's what I just asked you. You were staring off into space, and you weren't responding to anyone. You okay?"

"… yeah. I'm alright," Izuku said, feeling incredibly guilty as he nearly lied through his teeth to one of the only people he cared about like family (and the only one he maybe cared for much more than that). It wasn't that he didn't want to tell anyone what just happened, but rather that if he did, they probably wouldn't believe him. I mean, a headache and suddenly you're seeing people's souls and Aura? Yeah, right. Who the hell would believe that?

… well, more than a few people, actually. If, say, someone like Franken Stein of the Big Four were here and Izuku told him this, he'd likely be tempted to... 'examine' him.

.

..

…

Moving on!

"We should go and check on them," Fox said with a comforting hand placed on his teammate's shoulder, continuing, "They're probably gonna be a bit depressed after a defeat like that."

"… okay," Velvet answered, sounding a bit depressed herself as they stood and walked to the infirmary, where their teammates were currently being taken.

"Should we...?" Ruby asked, not entirely sure what to do in this type of situation.

"No. It's not our place to interfere. This is a team matter, we should let them handle it," Tenya answered, though internally he too wished to help them through the defeat they'd just suffered through.

"Actually, do you know where Shoto is? He got a call earlier and got this... almost furious look in his eye, and I'm kinda worried about him," Izuku asked after his partner.

"I can't rightly say. I did see him earlier, but I assumed he'd be here for the fight, at least. Well, that leaves two of our teammates unaccounted for, now," Tenya answered.

"Wait, Mr. McSplodySplode isn't here?" Yang asked in surprise, then looking at his usual spots (he hated sitting next to any of them) only to find all of them empty. She knew that the ashen blonde wasn't the easiest person to get along with, but she did know that he'd never miss a fight like this, especially for people he kind of, sort of, maybe respected.

"That's surprising. He's a brute, but he's certainly not stupid. He would've at least used this fight to gain some form of analysis on Mercury and Emerald. Maybe not the way Izuku can, but he'd gather data nonetheless," Weiss said, both complementing and insulting Bakugo at the same time.

"Well, whatever he's doing, I hope it's not getting him into trouble," Blake said as she sweatdropped, sensing that he was somewhere doing just that.

 _(somewhere in Vale, around the same time, Bakugo's POV)_

"So what if I'm a faunus? I've had a really bad day, and I just want some fucking ice cream. What's so hard to understand about that?" Bakugo asked the vendor with a rather impatient look on his face.

"Look, I don't know how many times I have to say this to be perfectly clear: I don't serve your kind here. Now leave," the man said again with a serious tone in his voice. Man, was everyone from Mistral this racist?

… well, the teams he'd met _from_ there certainly weren't, but that wasn't helping the situation!

"Urgh! Fine! Racist asshole..." Bakugo muttered the last part under his breath as he walked away from the vendor with an angry stomp in his step, almost hearing the chuckle that may or may not have been under the man's breath.

After a few more seconds of angry steps, the ashen blonde then felt a tug on his shoulder. He turned with an annoyed huff, suddenly finding that the one trying to get his attention was about a whole foot shorter than him (with heels, no less!), and currently shoving an ice cream cone in front of his face.

Rather confused at that point, he took the cone from the person's outstretched hand and got a better look at this person who'd made a rather unexpected show of kindness towards him, of all people, though he was skeptical. She was fairly young, maybe a year or two younger than him by her facial features, with black hair held in bushy twin tails by white bows with a few lighter streaks on her right side and piercing green eyes just a shade darker than Izuku's that didn't quite seem to suit her. Her clothes consisted of a sleeveless black blouse with white frills on her chest and collar area with a black ribbon bow hanging from the front of the collar, giving her a somewhat 'cutesy' appearance; or at least, that's what she was going for. The blouse exposed her midriff, up to about her mid-stomach, and she wore medium-length black armbands on both of her wrists, which ended at around her mid-forearm. She also wore a knee-length, black and gray sailor skirt fastened with a white belt, along with black shoes with triple tomoe emblems on the soles, with white legwarmers the ran up to her mid-thigh. In short (pun not quite intended): she was a young woman who was trying to look innocent yet sexy, and likely succeeding in that regard.

Not that the way she was dressed or looked really had any effect on Bakugo. He'd met several girls at Beacon who likely could've had long and successful careers in modeling, some of whom might've been able to beat him into the ground (ex: Yang, Pyrrha, probably Nora, etc.) but he'd felt no attraction to any of them (with the potential exception of Velvet), and this girl, though different, didn't faze him at all.

"Thanks," He said to the girl as he licked his ice cream, then looking behind the girl in front of him and realizing that she'd probably bought this from the same vendor who'd just turned him down in a blatant, almost proud manner, evidenced by the fact that he was now rushing towards them with bloody murder on his mind.

"You may wanna run," Bakugo said as he turned and began to sprint away from the area, the pint-sized person who'd done him a favor doing the same with just as much haste. Apparently, the vendor was so adamant in his beliefs that he'd chase them through the city in order to enforce them. Fucking racists...

About ten minutes later, they'd managed to finally lose the guy (he'd probably been detained by the cops by now) and were allowed a few moments to catch their breath. Well, Bakugo was, the girl who'd helped him still looked pretty fresh and ready to run again.

"What the hell'd ya do that for? I would've been fine if I'd just looked for another vendor," the ashen blonde direwolf asked in confusion.

He was then minorly surprised when the girl pulled out a Scroll, began typing, and before Bakugo could really have a chance to be annoyed, she shoved the device in his face, allowing him to read: _"Don't think I helped you just to be nice. That guy was a bigot, a racist and a general asshole; he had it coming. That and one of my best friends is half-faunus, and that radical fuck turned down service to her before she even got the chance to speak. To be entirely honest, I could hardly tolerate racist assholes even before I met her, but that guy went and made it personal. But, that's just me. And before you ask, yes, I'm mute. Why else would I be typing into a Scroll to talk to you? Got a problem with that?"_

Bakugo read through the entire message before gently pushing the screen away from his face and saying, "Not particularly, no. Still, you didn't have to do it like that. You probably could've done something that didn't involve me and the effect probably would've been the same."

 _"But then he wouldn't be sitting pretty in a jail cell right about now,"_ the girl replied with an impish smile on her face.

"Fair point," Bakugo admitted, though begrudgingly so. "Well, see ya around, I guess," the ashen blonde said as he turned heel and began walking out of the alleyway they'd ducked into.

That was when he felt the same girl tug on his shoulder again, causing him to turn and say, "What now?"

The girl then responded by shoving her hand in his face and making a 'gimme' gesture with it. Bakugo replied, "You want me to pay you back for the ice cream?"

The girl nodded. Bakugo sighed and pulled out his wallet. "How much did it cost?"

 _"Twenty Lien!"_

"Okay, none of that!" Bakugo yelled as he pointed an accusatory finger at the pint-sized girl, continuing, "A cone that size would've only cost seven Lien at most!"

 _"Plus interest!"_ Was the girl's quick and rather snappy reply.

"Nope!" He pulled out a five and two ones, shoving them into her hand as he continued, "I give you what you paid and no more than that, dammit!" Before turning once more and storming off.

However, this proved to be a futile effort, as the girl soon caught up with him and shoved her Scroll in his face once more, this time written in all caps, _"PLUS INTEREST! YOU OWE ME THIRTEEN LIEN!"_

Bakugo began fuming over and thinking of the best way to get out of this current situation, then realizing a particular detail and said, "You know that I could get you arrested for extortion, right?"

 _"Oh really? And who're the cops gonna believe? A cute little mute girl in danger or an angry looking brute with murder on the mind?"_

"… fuck, you're good at this," Bakugo said in a rare show of respect. "Not that I really mind, but that last comment was kinda racist."

 _"No, it's just what you look like. Race had nothing to do with it,"_ the girl answered with a deadpan stare.

"It was still kinda racist."

 _"… well, shit, you got me there. Sorry. I didn't mean to come off like that,"_ an apologetic look accompanied this message, and it seemed to be sincere from what the direwolf faunus could tell.

Bakugo then sighed and continued, "Well, it looks like you're not gonna go away until I pay you, which probably won't happen for a long while. Might as well get introductions out of the way. Name's Katsuki Bakugo. Remember it."

The girl hesitated for a few moments before typing out her name, _"Mint Chip. A pleasure to extort you."_

"Well, at least you're admitting to it now. Also, really? Mint Chip?"

 _"Shut up! If you make an ice cream joke, I swear to Oum I'll stab your eye out with a spoon!"_ Her message read as she pointed a threatening finger at him.

"Good luck with that," Bakugo said with sarcasm dripping from his voice, walking out of the alleyway with Mint on his tail.

 _(Meanwhile, somewhere at Beacon, Shoto's POV)_

"Remember Shoto, you're my masterpiece. You will win this tournament. And you will use that left side of yours to do it. You can't possibly suppress it forever," Endeavor said with unfiltered pride that disgusted Shoto to his very core. Why? Why did he abandon the tournament fight with people he actually cared about only to be lectured by the one man he hated most on the face of Remnant? Just... why?

 _Better leave soon. This has already put me in an even worse mood than before,_ Shoto silently thought as he stood and walked from the room, only briefly stopping and saying to his father, "How many times must I tell you? I won't use it. I will not become like you. I will never be like you."

Then he walked out of the room with a sour look on his face, wandering aimlessly down the hallways, wishing to be anywhere but near his father. The entire encounter with him had stressed him out a great deal, and though he put on a brave face earlier, he had already been stressed from the fact that his father was even in Vale, and now he likely wouldn't have to restraint to keep up that façade for much longer, if he could even keep it up at all now.

"Hey, Shoto!" Shoto was then brought out of his brooding, looking up to find that Izuku was now in front of him with an excited look in his eye.

"Hi, Izuku," Shoto managed, though not with his normal, hardly seen smirk. Instead, his lips were almost frozen into a single, neutral line, unmoving and potentially unchanging. His mood was so sour that it was all he could do to keep himself contained and not vent at Izuku, but he knew his partner didn't deserve anything close to that.

"Listen, I've got some stuff to go over from Coco and Yatsu's fight. You wanna help me go through it?" Izuku asked with that same excited tone, unaware of the emotional strife that he was currently going through.

 _Which is a good thing. I'm not ready to tell any of them about..._ that _. Not yet, anyway._

"Sorry, Izuku. I... I've kinda been having a bad day. Maybe some other time?" He asked, hopeful that it would be enough to get himself isolated for a few minutes. It wasn't that he didn't want to help Izuku; he did, and what he was offering sounded like a lot of fun. But he just... he needed to think. Alone.

"… well, okay," Izuku said with reluctance in his tone. As he walked past his partner towards the training hall, he stopped midway and said, "You know you can talk to us, right? We're you're teammates and your friends. We'll be here for you. Just like you've been here for us."

This question, while fairly straightforward and earnest at its core, was one that Shoto struggled to find an answer to. Yes, he wanted to open up to them, to get all this stress and secret keeping off of his chest, but he couldn't. This wasn't their burden to bear. It was his and his alone. No friendship, no matter how much it may have meant to him, could change that fact. And so, he answered, nearly lying through his teeth to do so, "Yeah. I know," without facing his partner as he continued down the hallway with a large scowl on his face, disgusted at himself for lying to his best friend and further enraged with his father.

 _One of these days, old man. I'm going to make you pay for what you did to me_ and _to mom. Especially for what you did to mom, you sick fuck. I'll make you regret the day I was born to you. I will be your downfall, your damnation, your Ragnarok._

 _You will never have power over me, or anyone, ever again._

 _(about two hours later, a café in Vale, Neo's POV)_

 _Seriously, this guy is way too verbal about killing stuff. I mean, I kinda have sadistic tendencies, sure, but at least I can keep them in check most of the time. This guy needs **serious** anger management, like, now!_ Neo silently thought to herself, currently disguised as Mint Chip, who'd become quite the useful alias whenever she felt the need to go into Vale without constantly using the rooftops, not that the parkour it involved wasn't fun.

Across from her was a guy named Katsuki Bakugo, who, after failing to probe her for information, was currently venting to the disguised girl about his teammates. She'd tuned out every now and then, but she got the broad strokes of what he was saying and actually kind of related to his current position with his team. Not entirely, but in a way, she did. She was also the odd one out in most social situations with her 'teammates,' even more so than Dabi, and that was saying something.

She then checked back in with reality as her current companion sighed in frustration and continued "And the really stupid part is? I get why they don't like me. I'm a jackass, there's no changing that. It's just who I am. I'm not expecting them to really like me at all. I just... *sigh* I hate the way they look at me. Fuck them _and_ their pity. I don't need it. I don't want it. I can get to the top on my own."

Neo stayed silent complied this with the other information he'd already given her. _He never mentioned any of his teammate's names, nor that of his other acquaintances. That and he apparently found that he could at least tolerate more than a few of them after a few months. That's as far as they've gotten there. And apparently, he used to bully one of his teammates and they hated each other's guts for a pretty long time, but they kinda developed a pseudo-mutual respect for each other. Even though he doesn't show it, he does at least seem to care about what happens to them. Well, starting to, however small those feelings might be._

Bakugo then sighed again as he leaned back in his chair, drapping his left arm over his eyes as he continued, "Ya know, I have no idea why I'm even telling you this. Something must be seriously wrong with me to tell you all of that and not be bothered by it. Guess I really am crazy."

Neo then brought out her Scroll out and began typing, sliding it across the table to the ashen blonde for him to read. A few seconds went by, Bakugo simply sitting in the same position, not even acknowledging the Scroll laid in front of him. Then he glanced at the table and saw the offered device, then sitting up properly and looking at it with genuine curiosity. Shortly afterward, he picked up the Scroll and read what she'd typed.

 _"Well, I certainly can't deny that you're a jackass. But you do seem to care about your teammates. Go ahead and scream that you don't and that you'd like nothing more than to beat them into the ground. Either way, you'd just be proving my point. Look, I'm not gonna pretend that I understand you completely. I mean, we just met two hours ago, that would be really weird and kinda creepy. But I will say that you should give a shit about your friends, if for no other reason than 'I'm the only one allowed to beat them into the ground.' And if nothing else, think of it like this. It's better to be friends with people you can tolerate most of the time and occasionally fight with, then with people you hate with a burning passion, or to have no friends at all."_

Several seconds of long silence passed between the two, the only noises present being the chatter in the background and noises of silver and dishware. Bakugo then suddenly stood as he continued, "They're not my friends! Not even close! And... urgh! Look, Minty, I don't need or want your advice, dammit! You're only sixteen anyway, so what the hell would you know about my situation?!"

Neo just gave him a semi-deadpan stare as she raised her eyebrow in a 'really?' gesture, which managed to both confuse and piss off her direwolf companion even further. In response, however, Bakugo, surprisingly, only huffed in frustration as he passed the Scroll back to her and sat back down. "Your advice has been... duly noted. Nonpriority."

 _"A thank you would be nice. Also, I'm nineteen, asshole."_

"Yeah right, you are. And I'm not thanking you for advice I didn't ask for," Bakugo responded as he pulled out his wallet, bringing out a few Lien cards and throwing them onto the table near Neo. "But I did owe you Lien. Consider my debt paid off. Count it, if you don't believe me."

The ashen blonde then turned and left the café with hardly a sound (surprising, considering who we're talking about), leaving Neo to gather and count the cards he'd left behind.

 _All thirteen. Huh. That's... actually kinda surprising. I half expected him to leave out at least one or two cards. Well, at least he's honest, even if it's in a rather brutal manner. And keeps his promises. Still kind of an ass, though._

Her Scroll then buzzed suddenly, causing her to flick it open once more. Tomura had texted her, saying, _We're gonna be going over the broad strokes of the infiltration plan and getting Torchwick back. Are you coming?_

Almost immediately after she finished reading this, she responded, _Be right there!_ As quickly as her fingers could type the response. She then left the café and, once she was sure there was no one watching her, teleported to the base, leaving nary a witness in her wake.

 _(Bakugo's POV)_

 _Mint Chip, huh? She seems... tolerable. I didn't get the urge to blow her up as soon as I saw her, so that's new. Hmm..._ Bakugo silently thought to himself as he walked aboard the ship that would take him back to Vale.

 _Still, though, that's an odd name to have. Either her parents were ironic as hell or she chose that name herself,_ he thought as he sat on one of the seats as the ship took off.

 _Also, why the hell does she smell like a two-ton container of Neapolitan ice cream? Seriously, she was practically generating the scent._

 _(around the same time, Beacon training hall, Izuku's POV)_

"Augh!" Izuku yelled out as he once again lost balance with his kicks. He'd been trying to get this technique down for the last hour and kept failing constantly. He'd only managed to keep going since practice made perfect, even though his technique was definitely far from perfect.

"Damn," Izuku said as he rubbed the elbow he'd landed on. _Mercury must've been training for years in order to get all those moves down. He made it look so easy, too. Then again, I've only been training for upwards of about seven months, so I really should've expected this to happen._

 _Hmm... I guess I could try a few more of the simple combinations he demonstrated and call it a day,_ Izuku stood again as he flipped through his notebook once more, eager to practice as many techniques as he could. Especially now that he'd rid himself of his tunnel vision from earlier. Practice what you can learn and learn it the best you can. _Then_ move onto something new and infinitely more complicated.

The green haired boy then hopped back up and began to walk towards the dummies that he'd set up earlier. Izuku then took his stance: holding his arms near his chin for defense with his legs about shoulder width apart with slightly bent knees, his body angled in such a way to make his body a smaller target.

Izuku ran at his target dummy with a jumping front kick, causing the wooden body to snap quickly backward from the impact and snapping back from the rebound of the force. He then continued with his combo, starting with a low spinning kick and continuing the rotation into a spinning back kick before following through with the momentum he'd generated with a high spinning heel kick, all three of which caused the post to snap and rebound as quickly as it had before.

Then, without even thinking about it, Izuku sprang from the ground and began rotating into yet another kick, one that involved a rather acrobatic side flip. Strange. This wasn't supposed to be in the combo. And yet it felt right.

As he continued with the attack, he glanced downwards towards his striking leg and was shocked to find that something was coalescing around his foot. It was blurry, incredibly hard to make out or describe as anything other than a mist that was dripping with color. Quite literally: there wasn't a singular shade that could be made out of it. It was constantly shifting, constantly changing, and-

 **BLAM!**

Before Izuku could observe this strange phenomenon further, his kick landed, though not quite on his intended target. Due to the observation he'd made mid-air, the kick missed the dummy by an entire foot, and the impact left a rather large crater where his attack had landed, just a foot away from the dummy.

.

..

…

 _...WHAT THE HELL JUST HAPPENED?!_

Izuku, shocked from both the earlier phenomenon and now the amount of damage that his kick had done to the floor, immediately did what he would do in this situation: begin analyzing it and writing down plenty of notes on the subject until he managed to calm down.

"Okay, that was crazy. I mean, I know One for All is powerful and everything, but that amount of output should've at least hurt me. This just raises a lot more questions that I've gotta ask. And if I do ever managetoaccessthislevelofpowerwithoutbreakingmyselfagainIreallyneedtoknowhowIdiditinthefirstplacesothatmaybeIcanusethatandapplyittoFullCowlifIcanfigureouthowtodothatbutifIcantanditspurelysituationalthenImightbeinforalongstudyperiod..."

The mumbling continued for almost full minute before Izuku heard a gruff, tired voice call from behind him, "Hey, kid! You okay?"

This managed to break Izuku out of his mumbling tirade and momentarily go silent in order to gather himself again. Deciding to push this newly learned information to the back of his mind and closed his notebook, saying as he turned, "Yeah, I'm alright-"

The green haired boy then stopped abruptly mid-sentence, recognizing the feathery hair and crimson eyes from just a few days ago. Standing at the entrance to the training ring with his arms crossed and an observant look donning his face was Qrow Branwen, better known as Black Reaper, and, currently, the third most renowned huntsman in the world, though beyond his name he wasn't very well known. Hell, until yesterday Izuku didn't even know what he really looked like.

However, Izuku, unlike the red-eyed reaper's niece, kept up to date with current Big Four members quite often. Qrow had held his spot for nearly seven years, which, after Endeavor and All Might, made him the longest holder of a position in the Big Four... ever. This information, as you might imagine, made Izuku go absolute fanboy and nearly break down... again.

"Holy... you're-"

"Qrow Branwen, aka Black Reaper, member of the Big Four, yadda yadda yadda. I know. You told my niece about it," Qrow said with a sigh, noting the fact that as soon as he'd entered their room she'd bombarded him with questions.

"Oh! Erm... sorry," Izuku said with a bit of regret hinting in his tone.

"No, no, it's fine. I was actually looking for you, anyway."

"… wait, what?" Izuku said with a confused tilt of his head.

"Well, your last name's Midoriya right?" Qrow asked, which the freckled boy answered by slowly nodding, still in a bit of shock that one of the Big Four was talking to him. Sure, he'd talked to All Might before, but that had been over the course of almost an entire year, and he had no idea how to address this particular... well, underrated celebrity, really.

"Um... crap, I actually have no idea how to ask this... Oum this is a lot more awkward than I thought it'd be," Qrow said as he scratched the back of his head.

"… ah, to hell with it. Kid, your dad was Hisashi Midoriya, right?"

 **A/N: Aaaaand that's a cliffhanger! Yeah, it's not the best way to end the chapter, but my internet failed and I couldn't write for a pretty long while. Sorry!**

 **Okay, here's the other review responses:**

 **Awesome: Yeah, I'll be the first to admit that I might stick a bit too close to the source, but I'll try to get out of that habit once Volume 4 rolls around.**

 **I've seen both Bleach and Avatar, and they were both awesome. I might make a story on one of these topics or I might not. It all depends, really.**

 **Last Shadow: I'm afraid that character thing is just something I enjoy a bit too much to let go. Don't get me wrong, that story concept is amazing, and someone should really get on that, but I'm really enjoying writing this story and even though that seems like something that'll be fun to write about, it's gonna have to wait. It's been tabbed though. I'll definitely consider it once this story finishes up (in the next two years or so).**

 **Questions: Well, some quirks are more psychic based, therefore only causing the occasional headache or in the worst-case scenario, brain damage (oh god, what have I done!), and certain semblances, specifically the more powerful ones like Shoto's and One for All, can affect the user's body.**

 **As to the rest of the review... well damn, that's a lot to read through, and I'm not entirely sure that I'll be able to post a response to everything without it being too long. However, I will say this much: it's an awesome story idea that I kinda wish I'd thought of before. However, I do highly recommend that you write this yourself since this is such an awesome idea and I don't want to take credit for something so awesome that I personally did not conceptualize.**

 **And if you're not a good writer: that's fine. I'm certainly not the best, but I only got better because I kept working at it, and I'm still working on it because this is something I enjoy doing. If you need tips on writing at all, I've got three for you. Also, for any would-be writers out there, listen up:**

 **1) Remember the basics. This can, and often will save you from making a lot of pacing and structure slip-ups in the future if you do decide to write this awesome idea.**

 **2) Start out simple. It's not a rule that you always have to follow, but it's one that I think you should at least keep in mind. Sometimes the greatest stuff can come from really simple ideas, blossoming into complex and well-told narratives in the process of being told. Also, keep the characters fun but relatable. Just a side note.**

 **3) It's your story. No one should blatantly tell you what direction the story should take or X should've happened and Y should've been the killer all along. Suggestions for elements and topics are good things, and genuinely pointing out flaws in a story are something that we authors really need more often than not. Saying that the author did one thing wrong and making a big deal out of it is just nitpicking. That doesn't mean you should blow up at them, just... be patient with them. Please.**

 **And I'm not saying that this story is pure gold: believe me, there are plenty of problems with it. Probably more than I can see, since I have a biased viewpoint as the author, but I can see at least some of the flaws nonetheless. Just remember to respect your audience, especially when they criticize you because more often than not they'll want to help make your story into something better.**

 **That being said, if you don't feel like writing it, that's entirely fine. No one's gonna force you to do that. If you still feel like I'd be the better choice to write this, then I'd be incredibly honored that you'd presented this to me at all. However, if this somehow manages to change your mind, then good luck to you.**

 **Here's a Thought, Guest 1 & Guest 2 (because for some reason they all posted the same review three times. Was this a copy/paste error or a notification error?): Thank you! I don't think I'm the best person ever, but thanks nonetheless!**

 **The story ideas are amazing, but unfortunately, I'm not gonna have enough time to write them until I finish this story up. Sorry, that's just how it is. However, once I do, I'll definitely consider it, along with any other ideas that get sent my way.**

 **Ya hear that! I'm now taking suggestions for new stories! This won't go on forever, probably until the end of May, so give you suggestions now!**

 **Next Chapter: May 6th**

 **Seeya in the next one!**


	30. Declaration of War

**A/N: 200 REVIEWS! YEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEESSSSSSSSSSS! THANK YOU ALL SO FREAKING MUCH! YOU'RE THE BEST!**

 **Review Responses:**

 **Questions: You got it! And thanks for the extra info, it's a real help with the writing process! I'm not going to be able to write it out at the moment, but it's definitely an interesting idea, and one I'll definitely come back to. Also, good luck with Med school!**

 **Guest: Yes, there will be more references to RT shows in the future, and yes, they will get on her case about running away.**

 **TheRandomReader: Okay, then the MTN name shall remain as it is. Sorry to any of the readers who thought that MNT was better.**

 **Disclaimer: I do not own RWBY or My Hero Academia. They belong to Monty Oum, Kohei Horikoshi, and their respective publishing companies. Please support the official releases.**

 **I do not own the cover image**

Chapter 30: Declaration of War

"… wait, you knew my dad?!" was Izuku's immediate, and rather understandable, reaction.

"Yeah. Knew him for years, ever since I first came to Beacon. He was one of my best friends, and we nearly ended up on the same team together too," Qrow answered with a smile that, for once, didn't seem to be sarcastic in the slightest.

"But that's a story for later. Anyway, I'm here to ask you a couple of things, just some stuff I need to make sure of," Qrow continued, unsure as to whether or not the boy would actually-

"Okay. What did you want to ask?" Izuku said with a curious tone.

"Wait... that's it?" The red-eyed reaper asked in confusion.

"Yeah. Why, is something wrong?"

"Nothing, it's just... I thought you'd be a bit more cautious," Qrow said honestly.

"Well, you're Ruby's uncle. She talks about you a lot, and I know for a fact she doesn't lie. Most of the time, anyway," Izuku responded as he sweatdropped, noting the only time that Ruby had tried to lie being where it'd been so obvious even someone like him could see through it.

"Oh. Well, alright then," the red eyed reaper said as he sat down across from Izuku. "Well, first off, how much do you know about him?"

"… nothing, really. He wasn't really a topic that mom liked to bring up," Izuku said with sadness in his voice. He really wanted to know something, anything about his dad.

"Well, shit, that sucks. I thought he'd have been brought up at least once or twice by now. Might've made this easier," Qrow sighed, briefly rubbing his forehead with the ball of his hand before continuing, "Okay, next question. Can you analyze a lot of things in really accurate detail? Ya know, environmental conditions, weapon stats, fighter profiles, that sort of thing."

"Most of the time, yeah. Why? Is that unusual?"

 _Kid, you have no Oum damned idea. Argh. Well, this is gonna make_ that _whole explanation a lot harder. Oh well, we can deal with it later._

"I don't think so. I mean, your dad used to go into analyzation fits all the time, and now I'm pretty sure it's genetic."

"I have no idea whether or not you're joking."

"Neither do I," Qrow said with a blank face. "Okay, last question. Have you seen anything weird lately? Something really out of the ordinary?"

This caused Izuku's eyes to slightly widen in surprise, remembering what had happened just a few hours ago in the coliseum. Did Qrow know what had happened to him? Did something similar happen to his dad?

However, before Izuku could answer, Qrow just sighed and said, "Ya know what, nevermind that one. It's way too out there."

"Oh." The green haired boy replied with a depressed look in his eye. He'd hoped to tell Qrow what he'd seen, but that clearly wouldn't get him anywhere. At least, not right now.

The red eyed reaper saw this look and took a deep breath when he saw it. It was the same look that Hisashi would always get when he flirted meaninglessly, and the one that he got whenever he was having family problems. The look that said 'I want to say something but I shouldn't.'

 _Urgh. Dammit, now I feel bad. Okay, okay Qrow. You didn't come here to get your best friend's kid depressed. But how do I cheer him up? Hmm... maybe that one story... okay, not that one. Too lewd. Oh. Oh! Yeah, that'd definitely get his spirits up!_

"Did you know that your dad kicked some major ass here?"

This got Izuku's attention, brightening his mood as evidenced by the fact that he was now listening with all the excitement of a child. Qrow smiled as he continued, "I wasn't in the same sparring class as Hisashi, and from what I heard he never volunteered to fight the other students all that much. Just wasn't something he liked to do, I guess. I only saw him fight in the ring twice and let me tell you: he dominated in there. Not because of his weapon, not because of his powers: it was that brain of his that made him such a freaking badass. He could let you make all the attacks you wanted to and find the best way to counter or nullify each and every one of them. There were a few times he processed stuff so freaking fast that it was almost like time stopped for a few seconds. For him, anyway. In layman's terms: if you didn't take him out in the first minute of a fight, you were basically screwed.

"Hisashi fought... I'd say the standard fare of about fifty or so spars a year. Out of his two hundred total fights, over the course four years, he only lost around forty. Not quite high enough for the leaderboard, but not nearly low enough to go unnoticed. I don't know how he managed to lose some of those, but I know that only three people were able to either outsmart or overpower him in a straight fight: my sister, my partner, and Shouta Aizawa. Other than them, no one even came close to beating him. As far as I'm aware, at least.

"And his strategies... oh, Oum help you if you were up against him in a strictly strategic situation. This school doesn't really focus on it, but Hisashi was the best damn strategist I have ever seen. He could seem like he was about to lose, and then out of nowhere- BAM! A flank from the side or environmental advantages that you didn't account for, and within the next few seconds you've already lost. As far as I can remember, no one had ever beaten him at any board game, card game, or even those old retro videogames... well, ever. He actually became so infamous for it he got the nickname 'Jade Dragon Strategist' on account of how smart and utterly terrifying he was. Heh. He was really cool, like that."

Izuku had listened to all of it with open ears and eagerness that would've rivaled a child's (which is saying something, if you know what some are like), and big, goofy grin was now stuck to his face: he'd finally learned about his dad! They were alike after all!

… but...

The blazer wearing inheritor's smile slowly dropped as the realization dawned on him. He then voiced the question that had surfaced in his mind, the one he feared the answer to the most. "Why didn't my mom tell me any of this? Or my grandparents? Or... or anyone? Why now?"

Qrow fell silent at that, not entirely sure how to answer it. When he finally answered the question, he was hesitant, as though he were walking on glass, "Well... erm... *Sigh*" he exhaled before he continued, "Look, I honestly don't know why they didn't tell you. You'll have to ask them yourself. But... if you want my best guess, they probably did it to protect you. Not in the traditional sense, but they tried to give you... well, as close to a normal life as you can get, being a hunter's family and all. Erm... basically, what I'm trying to say is... don't hold it against them."

Izuku's expression visibly softened into one of understanding as he nodded, and though he was still uncertain as to how he was going to ask about it, he was at least calmer than before, and that was a start, at the very least.

Qrow's gaze then shifted to Izuku's weapon sitting by the wall, the green hue glinting slightly in the slowly fading afternoon sunlight. He then stood and asked, "That's your weapon, right?"

"Hmm? Yeah. A friend made it for me. I still kinda owe her for it," Izuku answered with a sheepish grin, scratching the back of his neck as he did so.

The red eyed reaper walked over to Tempest with a curious look, now, without a battle to preoccupy his immediate thought, clearly sensing some kind of living force within it, something he hadn't felt since... well, his sister made all those blades out of Dust for a reason. Then, with that thought, his eyes widened in realization.

 _Holy shit, his weapon's alive._

An official living weapon hadn't been made in literal centuries, and they'd been rarely used or even seen since the Great War, though the public knew next to nothing of them with the exception of fables and stories, passed down through the generations and becoming more skewed with each retelling. His sister's blades... well, that was definitely complicated, but there was a reason they called her Death Screech back when she was a huntress.

 _Yeah, he's definitely gonna need proper training on how to use this thing... well, since there's no one else here with a weapon like this...  
_

"You wanna learn how to fight better with this?" Qrow asked.

This got Izuku's attention almost immediately, causing him to bolt onto his feet and ask, "Really?!"

"Yep. From what I saw in that fight a few days earlier, you've got a lot of potential and plenty of versatility to back it up. But you're relying on your weapon's sword form too much. I can teach you how to use all your forms in one style, and how to use your transformation steps in combat. Trust me, it can save your life in a pinch. It would take a while to get into the specifics, probably a few months if I'm being honest, but for right now I could show you some of the basics, at least. If you wanted to, I could even train you over the break. That doesn't mean you have to do it, it's just an offer. But, I think that it would really help you out. So, what do you-"

"Yes please!"

"… okay. Let's get started then," Qrow said with a surprised, though still happy, smirk on his face, pulling Harbinger from its resting place and extending the blade to its full length. "Grab you weapon. Let's see how far along you are."

"Yes sir!" Izuku said as he zipped across the arena to grab Tempest with an eagerness he hadn't felt since he trained with All Might the last month before Beacon. His entire form seemed to be oozing the excitement he felt, and Qrow had to admit that it was pretty contagious. He hadn't been this excited for anything since he'd trained Ruby, and if he was being honest with himself, he'd missed that feeling.

"Alright, from the top!"

 _(the next day, somewhere in Beacon, general POV)_

 _Why does Greenie look so worn out?_ the blonde brawler wondered to herself as Teams RWBY, JNPR, and STIK sat at their usual spot in the dining hall, wearing their uniforms as time passed. The tournament had taken a day off in order to let the students properly rest for the next day, which was showing to be full of promising fights ahead.

Izuku was currently sitting next to Yang with his head face down on the table with Tempest leaning on the table edge next to him, and from what the blonde could see sitting across from him, she could definitely tell that he was exhausted as all hell. Tenya, Bakugo, Ruby, Blake and Weiss sat across from them in specific, though rather characteristic, positions, with the former two talking (and simultaneously arguing) as usual, while Ruby enjoyed a plate of cookies and the white-haired heiress filed her nails again, their amber eyed friend sitting between them and staying rather engrossed in her book all the while.

On their side sat Shoto, who was currently going over some form of notes, along with the entirety of JNPR chatting aimlessly about their next round and how they were going to win it. Well, really Jaune was lecturing Nora and Pyrrha on different strategies to use during the fight with a silent Ren next to them, holding his tea cup in an odd grip with his eyes closed, likely only half listening to the conversation since it didn't really concern him.

Yang glanced about the room, finding that some of the other teams, especially the ones from Vacuo and Atlas, were taking glances at them with mixtures of fear, cockiness, and possible hatred lining their eyes. Apparently, the group was much more popular than they thought they were. Whether or not that was a good thing had yet to be seen.

It then proved itself quite the opposite when people's whispers, which had been incredibly quiet before then, started coming into earshot with gradually increasing volume, and the others were beginning to notice it as well. Izuku had lifted his head from the table, regaining enough energy to take notice of the conversation happening around them. He didn't like what he heard, and neither did anyone else at the table.

"Anyone know why they're looking at us like that?" Jaune asked with caution.

"I hope it's not my fault. I can draw unwanted attention to myself sometimes," Pyrrha said as she scratched the back of her neck.

"I don't think it's you specifically," Tenya readjusted his glasses.

"They're trying to get any info they can on us. We're heavy hitters, we really should've expected this to happen at some point or another," Bakugo said as he stood, causing some of the other students to stand and walk to meet him.

"MOVE IT, YA DAMN EXTRAS!"

"BAKUGO! YOU CANNOT TREAT OUR POTENTIAL OPPONENTS IN SUCH A MANNER JUST BECAUSE YOU DO NOT KNOW THEIR NAMES!" Tenya yelled after his partner with a characteristic set of directional hand waves.

"He has a point. You're drawing a lot of negative attention to us, Katsuki," Ren calmly stated without opening his eyes, though his arm were noticeably tenser than they were before. It should also be noted that out of the entirety of the group, Ren was one of the only people to not simply call him 'Bakugo.' At least, most of the time.

"LIKE I GIVE A DAMN!" Bakugo yelled back to the two.

"Huh. I thought that the infamous Beacon Trio were a bunch of hotshots, but you really take the cake in terms of ego," said a boy with tall, wavy violet hair as he made his way through the gathering crowd. He wore a gray suit jacket over a blank white t-shirt and black cargo pants, with a pair of dark grey tennis shoes completing the outfit. His eyes held a similar hue to his hair and were heavily bagged, his tired expression giving the impression of an incredibly tired personality.

He then continued, "Chill out, would ya? You're being a real ass. As for the rest of you, I'm not gonna pretend that you aren't strong opponents, but you're nothing I haven't already breezed past. You've got some amazing powers, I'll give you that much, but that won't get you very far in the real world. So let me be clear: this is a declaration of war. Do with it as you like, either way, if I see you in the ring, you're going down."

The violet haired boy then turned heel and walked away, leaving the members who were paying any sort of attention rather confused and somewhat skeptical.

.

..

…

"… so... that was a thing," Nora said in her usual, though somewhat subdued, bubbly tone without her normal smirk. She, and the others at the table, knew the gravity of what had just been said.

"A 'thing' indeed. Urgh. What does that fool think he's doing? Declaring war like that... I have a strange feeling that one of our duos are going to face him in the next round of the tournament," Weiss commented as she pinched the bridge of her nose, emphasizing her annoyance with the situation.

"You know him?" Blake looked up from her book to ask.

"No, I don't believe so. Do you know him, Izuku?" The white-haired heiress asked.

Izuku flipped through his notebook for several seconds for any reference to the boy who'd just confronted them, only to find no such information anywhere. "Weird. I can't find anything on him."

"That's... actually a first," Ruby said with a surprised tilt to her head.

"Then we'll just have to deal with it if we happen to fight him," Shoto said as he closed his own notes. "I'm gonna go get in some training before the day wraps up."

"Can I come with?" Izuku asked.

"Yeah, sure," Shoto said without much enthusiasm in his voice, leading the way to the training hall without bothering to look back at his partner, though the green haired boy still followed him out. Bakugo then huffed in seeming frustration, muttering something about 'lucky bastards' before making his own way through the crowd, ensuring that the rest of the group would likely not see him for the rest of the day.

"This isn't boding well," Tenya said as he readjusted his glasses. "They've been like this for the past day. If they don't get their act together, they're going to lose focus."

"What are you talking about, Spectacles? They look fine to me. Well, Greenie was looking tired, but I think they're getting along alright," Yang said, though worry laced her voice.

"That's not what I'm getting at. And please stop calling me that. *Sigh* Look, I know it might seem fine, but Shoto... he's been quite distant lately. I don't know if it's because of family matters or something else entirely, but it's becoming a problem. If this keeps up, they might not be able to use any of Izuku's strategies properly, if at all."

"Should we-"

"I don't know. I... we'll just have to wait it out and help if we can. I hope we don't have to."

 _(a few hours later, near the training hall, general POV)_

 _Man, that session was brutal. Shoto's gotten a lot more focused lately. Does it have something to do with his dad?_ Izuku wondered as he left the training hall, spotting the afternoon sun beginning to peak through the windows and bleed a simple yet luscious golden hue into the hallway.

 _I hope he gets better soon. Well, I'd better get over to Qrow,_ Izuku thought as he continued down the hall to his red eyed tutor.

 **"Ah ha ha! There you are, young Midoriya!"** All Might said boisterously as he suddenly dashed into the hallway.

"All Might! Wait, what're you doing here?"

 **"Exactly the point! I need to borrow you for a quick minute, if you don't mind,"** he said with a hint of urgency.

"Erm... okay," Izuku said, quickly following All Might into a side room where he quickly deflated, sighing in relief as he did so, and told his pupil the unfortunate news.

"What?! Fifty minutes?!"

"Yeah. Sorry I didn't tell you sooner, but I didn't want to worry you with the tournament right around the corner. In hindsight, I probably should've told you regardless," Toshinori apologized. "The way I am now, I can barely even look like All Might for even an hour and a half. I'm sorry it took me this long to tell you."

"N-no, I understand why. It's just... you gave up that much of your time? For us?" The green haired boy asked in shock.

"Yeah. And I would've done it again if it meant protecting you all. So don't go feeling sorry for me, this is my own fault.

"And you keep going," Toshinori said as he placed a hand on his pupil's shoulder, continuing, "I know you can to do this. Walk tall, Izuku Midoriya. And the world will see that _you_ are here."

"Um... I'm not following you," Izuku responded with yet another confused tilt to his head.

This, of course, nearly caused Toshinori to comically fall face first to the floor, though he managed to catch himself on the wall. "Dammit. I should've used a more obvious proverb."

"I-it's fine. But I really do have to get going," Izuku explained.

"Of course. Sorry for holding you up," Toshinori again apologized as he stepped out of Izuku's path, smiling as the boy walked past him, and thought, _I certainly hope that Qrow's training doesn't kill him. It's not nearly as harsh as Torino's is, but it's nothing to scoff at either._

 _(the next day, the Vytal coliseum, Shoto's POV)_

"Hey, Shoto!" Izuku yelled, finally receiving his partner's attention after the boy had spent the majority of their prep time, with the exception of holstering Jotunheim and Muspelheim to their respective sides, brooding in a corner with a rather conflicted look on his face.

"Oh, sorry. Are we up soon?" Shoto said in his normal, though somehow even more neutral, tone.

"Yeah. Hey, are you-"

"I'm fine. Let's just... let's get this fight over with already," Shoto responded with a hasty and slightly hostile edge in his voice, his eyes now showing that he was almost entirely focusing on the fight.

"O-okay," Izuku said as he fell into step with his partner, the silence only broken by the echo of their shoes accompanying the slow, achingly awkward walk to the arena. The green haired boy then spoke up, "Do you need me to go over what I've found out about our opponents?"

Shoto gave a noncommittal grunt in response, which Izuku acknowledged by flipping through his journal and explaining, "I couldn't find out much on that guy with the purple hair, but his name is Hitoshi Shinso. He apparently applied for Beacon and didn't make the cut, so he went to Vacuo instead. Other than that... well, I couldn't really find anything on him, and the footage of his team fight got corrupted for some reason."

"What about his partner?"

"Not a whole lot, but more than I could find on Hitoshi. His partner's name is named Hanta Sero. To be honest, I'm surprised these two get along as well as they do. They're total opposites in nearly every way-"

"I don't care about their dynamic."

"R-right. Erm, Hanta seems to use... wow, these weapons are actually pretty weird."

"How so?"

"Well, they seem to be some kind of rope or ribbon launchers he straps to his elbows and use to fight with a combination of Dust and mostly mummifies his enemies."

"… is that seriously what he uses to fight?"

"I'm just as confused as you are. Other than that, there isn't really anything on them."

It was at that incredibly inconvenient moment that Endeavor, in full costume, with his semblance seemingly subconsciously activated, making him look even more intimidating than his hulking frame already did. At a glance, the half and half leader could tell that his teammate was minorly awed, but still mostly terrified, by the man who walked in their path.

"Keep going. I'll meet up with you in a bit," Shoto whispered as low as he could.

"A-are you-"

"Don't worry about me. Just go."

Izuku hesitated, not knowing what effect a talk like this would have on his partner, especially before a fight as big as this one. But he eventually nodded in acceptance and slowly walked away from the pair with an incredibly nervous echo in his steps.

"…"

"… now Shoto, don't-"

"Fuck. Off," Shoto said with the iciest and hate filed glare he'd ever given anyone. "I don't need anything that you might have to say."

Endeavor's smug smirk never left his face, as if he were expecting this level of hatred. He simply stepped out of Shoto's way, allowing his son a few steps past before he said over his shoulder, "This is a rebellious phase. I know you'll grow out of it...

"… son."

Shoto grit his teeth with all the force that his reaction could muster, trying his damnedest to not give that bastard the satisfaction of even the slightest reaction. And yet, even as he walked away from the father he so despised, he couldn't think of anything to wipe away the scowl that had managed to spread across his face.

 _(about a minute earlier, Izuku's POV)_

Izuku walked past the flame encased man with his partner staying behind to talk to the man, despite the green haired boy's suspicions that this would likely damage Shoto's mental state even further than it already seemed to be. Dammit all. Why couldn't he just help his friend?

"Hey!"

Izuku nearly jumped in surprise, managing to catch himself and turn to where the voice had come from. The owner of the voice was tall, about six-foot one, with neat blonde hair and a rather large but controlled frame. He wore a plain white training gi with a black belt across his waist and a hole cut out in the back for his rather large tail, accompanied by white training pants and black shoes with blue details.

"You're up against Hitoshi next round, right?" The boy asked.

"Erm... yeah, but... who are you?"

"Oh! Sorry. My name's Mashirao Ojiro. Look, I've got to say this fast, there isn't a lot of time," the now named Ojiro began to explain, "I'm not sure what this guy's semblance is, but whatever the hell he did, it's powerful. I wasn't even conscious until our match almost ended. It seemed like he brainwashed us. I'm not entirely sure how, but I do know that it only happened after I answered one of his questions. He seems pretty well versed in verbal combat, so I know it'll be really hard to not react, but please, whatever you do, don't answer even **one** of his questions, or you've already lost."

 _Okay, this is serious. Wait-_

"You said until the match almost ended. Why is that?"

"I... well, I apparently ran into one of his teammates, and that snapped me out of it. It didn't stop us from losing, but it does prove that outside contact can break the hypnosis. Maybe. Sorry I can't tell you more."

"N-no, no, you've done more than enough. Thank you!" Izuku said, then realzing that the match would start in just a few minutes and promptly departing for the arena proper with an analytical look in his gaze as he hypothesized and calculated the best way to take down Hitoshi. Well, what he could come up with, anyway.

He stepped into the arena about thirty seconds before his partner did, almost immediately noticing the mixed expression of pain and anger on Shoto's face. Izuku was tempted to speak to him, maybe warn him about Hitoshi, but the half and half leader simply did not respond. Whatever Endeavor had said to Shoto, it had shaken him up badly.

"Stick to plan C," Shoto harshly whispered under his breath, leaving no room for argument on his part. They'd arranged a few plans the day prior as part of their training, the aforementioned 'plan C' being to take on one teammate each. This was probably going to end badly.

Hitoshi came from the opposite end of the arena with just as much applause accompanying his entrance as theirs, Hanta following close behind his battle partner. Hitoshi wore the same outfit as he did the previous day, with the addition of simple but sturdy, gunmetal colored gauntlets. Hanta, on the other hand, was a stark contrast to his teammate. He was shorter then his teammate, but still taller than Izuku, with black hair and a cheshire grin on his lips. He wore a full black body suit with white designs across his mid torso, and the sleeves were cut short, down to his mid-bicep specifically, and across his elbows were rather bulky launchers with really odd designs, almost looking like tape dispensers. The launchers themselves were a part of a pair of gauntlets that had been strapped to his forearms, they surprisingly didn't even cover his knuckles, which themselves were colored yellow/orange with soundwave designs running across them.

"Okay. Let's see what you're made of," Hitoshi said with his unusual yet characteristic smirk, a plan already forming inside his head. At least, from what Izuku could discern.

"Hey, no hard feelings. Let's have a good match," Hanta said to their opponents with a far cheerier tone than Hitoshi, his aforementioned cheshire grin never once leaving his face.

Shoto merely grunted in response. He wasn't in the mood for pleasantries. Izuku, on the other hand, met his combatant halfway, responding with a small, though rather nervous, smile, "Yeah. May the best team win!"

 _"Three!"_

Shoto's hand shot down to his saber, preparing to draw Jotunheim at a moment's notice, while Hitoshi raised his hands into a defensive stance and held an icy glare with the half and half leader across from him. They were both in bad moods, apparently.

 _"Two!"_

Izuku's hand gripped the handle of Tempest, the weapon itself humming in excitement while its user used his free hand to slip on his half mask, covering the lower half of his face almost entirely, while Hanta held his launchers behind him, ready to throw them forward at a moment's notice.

 _"One!"_

"I've got Hitoshi. Can you take Hanta?" Izuku said with a plan formulated in his head. Well, it wasn't really much of one, but it was a plan nonetheless. Shoto knew this and, though reluctantly, acknowledged that if anyone could beat Hitoshi right now, it was Izuku.

"Just don't lose."

 _"Begin!"_

 **A/N: And that's a wrap! Man, this chapter took a lot longer to write than I wanted it to. Oh well, I'm writing an awesome fight scene next chapter, which I'm hoping you guys will enjoy! I'm sorry if my writing seems a bit wonky. I've been dealing with writer's block for a bit now, so I'm trying to get back into the swing of things.**

 **Okay, without further ado, the release date!**

 **Next Chapter: May 20th**

 **Seeya in the next one!**


	31. Game On!

**A/N: So... I saw Infinity War about two weeks ago. Christ, that was simultaneously awesome and depressing. And towards the end there... *sniff* *quiet sob* Goddammit, I promised myself I wouldn't cry again!**

 **That aside, if you haven't yet, I do highly recommend that you see the movie. It's worth the price of admission and much more.**

 **Now, on a less depressing note, OH MY GOD WE'RE AT OVER 70,000 VIEWS AND OVER 300 FOLLOWERS! I legit thought this story would never get this popular. Thank you all so much for everything! I hope you enjoy the chapter!**

 **Review Responses:**

 **Guest 1: While I'd say it hasn't quite gone full edgy yet, they're definitely teetering on the edge between something like the last two seasons of Avatar the Last Airbender (the show, not the movie [we don't talk about the movie]) and a forced version of Berserk. I'm hoping they stick to the former, it's a lot more flexible. And while I did enjoy Pyrrha, I'd definitely say that she didn't have a whole lot to her, and one of the reasons they may have cut her was because... well, have you seen her fight? She'd practically one-shot every little enemy that came their way. Damn you, power balancing.**

 **Guest 2: Erm... well, shit.**

 **That was actually what I was going to do originally, but I couldn't do it in any way that made a whole lot of sense moving forward. But I can promise you this much: the characters aren't coming out unscathed, that'd be impossible. I'll probably be changing the rating of this just for the amount of brutality that'll go into it.**

 **Guest 3: Yes, yes we do. That guy is fucking hilarious.**

 **Guest 4: We'll get there... eventually... as soon as I can think of different ways for them to work as a four-man team and not as two-man pairs.**

 **Disclaimer: I do not own RWBY or My Hero Academia. They belong to Monty Oum, Kohei Horikoshi, and their respective publishing companies. Please support the official releases.**

 **I do not own the cover image**

Chapter 31: Game On!

 **(I'm the One from RWBY by Jeff Williams)**

Shoto was the first to move, closing in on Hanta almost immediately with an opening slash that left frost in its wake, giving his opponent barely enough time to dodge the attack before they began to combat each other properly, with the former enjoying the bout far less than the latter seemed to be.

Izuku and Hitoshi met in the center of the field with a loud clash, Hitoshi's left gauntlet grinding against the edge of Tempest in a feint attack, pulling back as he aimed a right upper cut towards his stomach, making painful contact that launched Izuku about half an inch off his feet. It wasn't nearly as hard as Yang's were, but this guy certainly wasn't weak by any means.

The green haired boy fought through the pain as he responded to Hitoshi's attack with a headbutt and made for an upward, diagonal slash at his opponent's torso, which Hitoshi just barely managed to dodge, the edge nearly catching the tail end of his jacket.

"Huh. That was a nice move," Hitoshi complemented with a sarcastic tone ever present in his voice. "Still, a fluke isn't gonna win you the match."

Hitoshi used Izuku's reaction to this to get in close and elbow him in the face, followed shortly thereafter by a knee to the-

But Izuku managed to catch that one, holding Hitoshi in place as he cocked back his right fist, with Tempest still in hand, and punched him square in the torso, stepping forward as the blow followed through and sent Hitoshi flying backwards, the violet haired boy barely managing to catch himself before he stopped at the midway mark of the ruins field.

Izuku rushed forwards to meet him in combat once more, leading with a strong left hook that Hitoshi simply dodged, which the former was expecting as he flipped Tempest into a backhand grip and jabbed it into his opponent's chest, then stabbing his blade into the ground and using it as leverage to attempt and airborne rotating sidekick.

Hitoshi managed to counter that by catching his leg, then yanking him down and began to wail on him with a flurry of attacks for several seconds, only briefly pausing to ready what would be a devastating right hook. "C'mon, you're supposed to be stronger than this. Why else would you be so blessed with this power?"

Izuku, though minorly shaken by the verbal jab, saw his attack coming and used the window Hitoshi had created to call Tempest back to his hand, using the flat side of the blade to block the heavy blow, causing the sound of the clash to echo throughout the arena with yet another loud **CLANG!** Hitoshi hadn't yet noticed, but Tempest's runes were glowing, and Izuku, while Hitoshi's arm was still reeling from the backlash of his own punch, slid along his outstretched arm as he began Tempest's transformation from sword to scythe, placing the now curved blade under Hitoshi's right armpit. The handle then shot out to its proper size, managing to catch Hitoshi off guard in the process and hit him square in the jaw, causing his head to snap to the side from the force of the improvised blow.

Izuku then continued through with the technique, one of the few that Qrow had been able to show him in the two days he'd been tutored. He slid down to the lower end of his scythe's handle and used the momentum he'd created to begin spinning in a stand still circle, dragging Hitoshi off the ground and into the air as he began to spin faster, and faster, until Izuku hurled Hitoshi, and Tempest, to the far side of the arena with the signature howl of Tempest's wind Dust accompanying the throw. He really needed to work on his aim.

The green haired boy wasted no time running towards Hitoshi once more with the added help of his shotgun boots, hopping into the air before launching himself downwards with a flipping axe kick. The purple haired boy managed to raise his arms in a block and, though the force of the blow was enough to push him back slightly, he managed to dull the blow. The ever-knowing smirk he'd had on his face the entire fight was no longer there. He was pissed.

Izuku landed on the ground and called Tempest back to his hand, swinging it around so that the blade was pointed behind him, jabbing the far end of the handle forward like a spear, which Hitoshi managed to dodge as he got closer and managed to deliver a few quick jabs to Izuku's gut, then pulling his hand back to deliver a devastating palm slam to Izuku's chest, pushing him back at least ten feet.

The blazer wearing inheritor almost smirked at this, now gaining enough distance to use Tempest's scythe form properly even as Hitoshi began to close in on him once again. He made one wide swing of Tempest over his head, causing Hitoshi to stop abruptly in his charge and give Izuku the chance to reangle the next swing to sweep his opponent's legs out from under him, getting him airborne and unable to defend himself from the oncoming barrage of wide slashes and buzzsaw sweeps, leaving Hitoshi's clothes, and his Aura, nearly in tatters.

As Hitoshi landed to the ground, Izuku brought his scythe back for one final attack, using his own Aura to charge the attack. The process was slow, however, giving Hitoshi plenty of time to get back up and start talking again. "I bet that monkey told you about my semblance, right? Well, I'd say that idiot wasted his breath if this is all you can do. So, you ready to disappoint?"

This, for once, for only half a second, finally got Izuku to answer, overcome with the seeming negligence and aloofness that Hitoshi seemed to possess. "That's not-"

And then, Izuku suddenly went silent, Tempest's cocked back charge losing its power and his eyes going white. He'd slipped up.

 **(Pause the song, keep it tabbed. You'll see why)**

"Izuku!" Shoto yelled to his partner as he dodged yet another attempt at grappling by Hanta, who'd proven to be much faster than he'd originally anticipated, preventing him from assisting his partner from his now near certain defeat.

Hitoshi, meanwhile, dusted off what remained of his clothes, muttering to himself about getting a replacement jacket, before speaking to Izuu, "I'll give you this much: you're a damn good fighter. But if you didn't have your excess of power to back you up, you wouldn't have made it past the team fights. Now. Drop your scythe, turn around, and walk out of the arena."

Izuku, though he tried his best, could not regain any semblance of control over his own body and almost robotically obeyed Hitoshi's command, Tempest clattering to the ground as he slowly walked towards the far edge of the arena. _C'mon, dammit! Gotta... try... something!_

Up in the stands, Izuku's friends were simultaneously shocked, worried, and terrified for their friend. Whatever Hitoshi had said to the green haired boy, he wasn't stopping. And this royally pissed all of them off. If he was going to lose, at least let him go out fighting!

"Dammit, Greenie, what the hell are you doing?!" Yang yelled at as high a decibel count as her vocal cords would allow, continuing, "Snap out of it!"

Ojiro looked scared as hell. He wanted to yell and scream or do something to help Izuku long, but he knew that nothing would help him. Unless Shoto managed to get to him in time and break the hypnosis, he was already finished. And so, he watched, and waited. _Just like training. Just like training. Just like..._

"C'mon! You're stronger than this!" Jaune yelled right along with her, though their support still had no effect on his progress towards the edge.

"Wake up, turn around, and fight him like a man, dammit!" Kirishima and Tetsutetsu synched together in their usual fashion with mirrored stances and their fists pumped into the air.

"Izuku! You'd better not give up this easily! You promised!" Ruby joined to, then joined by the rest of the group with various shouts of encouragement and attempted wakeup calls, but to no avail. Still, through it all, Izuku walked to his defeat.

"Dammit, Izuku, why aren't you-" Shoto yelled before he was promptly cut off by Hanta, who'd used the opportunity to nearly capture the half and half leader who was his current opponent, getting gradually angrier as he did so.

 _I'm... sorry, everyone... but I can't... move..._

 _Thank you... for trying... but... you have to... go on without me..._

Izuku had nearly reached the edge, just lifting his foot over the line when, suddenly, time almost seemed to stop. Towards the entrance of the arena that he could see, there were eight figures, all wreathed in shadow and almost formless, despite their unique presences. It was their eyes that jumped out at him, representing their own, bright shade of color contained within them, and yet they all seemed... familiar.

The figures then burst into the light of their respective colors, all combining into a kind of mystical presence that surrounded and almost enveloped him, their power manifesting itself in waves upon eaves of color.

 _What is this... it feels... empowering... wait... my fingers..._

 _I can move my fingers!_

And from this seemingly insignificant movement came a surge of kinetic energy that shook the entire coliseum, a blast of hyper condensed air erupting from his left hand accompanied by a soundwave of force. He'd broken the hypnosis.

Izuku panted from the sheer mental effort it took to break through the control for even a second, and with the nigh and considerable assistance (possibly) of the previous inheritors of One for All. It certainly wasn't easy, and his index and middle fingers were now broken and bruised to show for it. Hitoshi had a damn powerful quirk, that was for certain. Speaking of-

Hitoshi was shocked at the revelation that his hypnosis had been broken, to the point that he didn't notice the fight that his partner was going through. It didn't take priority. He had complete tunnel vision now.

"Hey! What the hell did you do?!"

Izuku nearly responded but managed to cover his own mouth at the last second, staying in control of his own body. His left hand throbbed at the sudden removal of his right hand, but the adrenaline managed to dull the pain.

 _I have to get him talking again._

"Well, say something!"

Izuku only stared back with determination in his eyes as he approached his opponent once more, not bothering to pick Tempest off the ground, though the weapon did protest to this. He began to run faster, and faster, and as he did so Hitoshi tried his damnedest to get any sort of response out of him.

"I didn't know you had so much power. I'm actually kinda jealous."

 _Yeah. I know what that jealousy feels like. I've been there more than once._

"With the way my powers work I've always been at a major disadvantage. But I guess someone like you wouldn't understand that!"

 _I get it. I_ was _blessed, but..._

"You're lucky enough to have heroic powers! It'll be so easy for you to reach your goals-" Hitoshi never quite finished his sentence, Izuku had long since made his way over and elbowed Hitoshi in the gut, sending him flying backwards as Izuku shouted within his mind, _No! I've been blessed by the people who helped me! That's why I'm even here!_

 **(If you still have I'm the One tabbed, go to the timestamp 3:09 and play it from there)**

Hitoshi wasn't giving up easily, however, digging his heels into the ground and skidding to a stop as he yelled, "Say something, dammit!" Punctuating it with a punch across Izuku's face. This hardly affected him, however, as the green haired boy quickly snapped back to form and punched Hitoshi in the gut, sending him even closer to the edge of the arena.

 _Shit!_

"Oh, hell no! Not yet!" Hitoshi yelled as he punched Izuku's broken fingers, causing the freckled inheritor to flinch at the last second before his attack could go through, allowing Hitoshi to slip right past him and almost push him out. But then...

A sudden lurch, pulling him further to the edge. Izuku then preformed the full combo he'd previously practiced: a spinning low kick, rotation, a spinning back kick, rotation, and finally finishing the fight with a single, echoing spinning high heel kick straight to Hitoshi's face, causing his head to snap back with the force, his body tumbling out of bounds.

Hitoshi had lost.

 **(End Song)**

 _"And with that final kick, Hitoshi Shinso has been eliminated by the barest inch of Aura and a simultaneous boundary out! That was certainly a close one!"_

 _(Hitoshi's POV)_

 _"Wow, Hitoshi! Your semblance would be perfect for a criminal!"_

 _"Don't go using your powers on me, alright?"_

 _"I mean, it'd be so easy for you to just go on a crime spree! You'd never get caught!"_

Yeah. That's what everyone always says. Wow, Hitoshi! Your power would be perfect for a criminal! Don't use it on me!

I don't blame them for being scared, though. I'd probably say the same thing if it were anyone but me.

But you know what?

I'm not the bad guy.

 _(Izuku's POV)_

 _Oh crap, Shoto!_ Izuku whipped his head around to try and find his partner before-

"Apologies."

 **KRABOOM!**

In almost an instant, a gigantic, nearly mountainous ice glacier covered almost a quarter of the field, shaking the entire coliseum to the point that some thought it might fall out of the sky. Izuku stood stock still, his surprise only emphasized by his widened eyes. In the stands, Yang, Jaune, and everyone else who'd been cheering for them had fallen deathly silent.

Shoto suddenly broke from the frozen bonds that had been placed on him by Hanta earlier and walked over to his now frozen opponent. "Sorry. That was... too much. I was just really angry."

Izuku held a somber but determined look in his eye, knowing that whatever it was that had shaken his friend up this badly had to have at least something to do with that encounter with Endeavor earlier. Even as Shoto began to thaw Hanta out of the glacier he'd created, and the crowd their best to cheer Hanta up from his defeat, Shoto simply held a calm yet sad expression on his face, one that only Izuku seemed to notice.

 _(about two minutes later, Izuku's POV)_

 _"W-well, that was certainly quite the match! Give them a round of applause, everyone!"_ Port's voice bellowed throughout the arena, though his voice held much hesitation after what had been displayed naught but a little while earlier.

Hitoshi had reawoken just a minute earlier, being rather pissed off at the fact that his teammate had been frozen in ice, though Hanta managed to assure him that there wasn't any damage beyond his Aura breaking, by some miracle.

Izuku noticed the violet haired boy's beaten and downtrodden expression, a look that he'd often associated with his high school life back when he was Fractured. And so, as Shoto and Hanta departed from the arena floor, the green haired inheritor asked, "Why do you want to become a huntsman? What's driving you?"

Hitoshi was a bit surprised at this, though it was only a minor detail, never taking his eyes from the floor. There was a brief, deafening moment of silence, only broken by Hitoshi once he answered, "You can't help the things you long for. Even if they might be impossible."

That single sentence, despite it's apparent lack of length or depth, struck a chord with Izuku. He remembered the time when he was much like Hitoshi, when everyone around him, especially Bakugo, doubted that he could ever make anything of himself, let alone become a huntsman. He'd tried so desperately to prove them all wrong, to show them that he could become a huntsman. But reality was harsh, and though he was lucky enough to receive the power and training of one of the most powerful people in the world, it was just that: luck. If he hadn't met All Might that day at the bridge, if he hadn't tried to save Bakugo, if he hadn't nearly worked himself to death, there was only one simple truth he couldn't avoid. He. Wouldn't. Be. Here.

And so, even as Hitoshi walked away with his shoulders slumped in defeat, Izuku only looked on in silence. Nothing he could say would make his opponent feel any better. It certainly hadn't ever worked for him. Why would it be any different for someone like Hitoshi?

And then, even as he turned his back and began to follow his partner out of the arena, he heard the praise that his team and classmates were giving him. There were even a few hunters adding to it as well, commenting on how Beacon couldn't accept someone like Hitoshi simply by nature of how his Semblance worked.

Izuku didn't have to turn around to know that Hitoshi was smiling despite the loss. Even in defeat, there was plenty to take away from a battle. More than simply winning, this was a place for Hitoshi to start improving and become his own kind of huntsman.

It was for this reason that Izuku felt a glimmer of hope for his opponent as he walked through the arena exit, then trying to calm Tempest down as he tried to explain why he dropped it... again.

 _(about ten minutes later, arena entrance 2, Yang's POV)_

"Well, it looks like we're fighting Atlas," the blonde brawler said as she stretched her arms, her teammate walking just behind her with her hand in a thinker position under her chin her mind obviously occupied with the team they were about to fight. "So, who're we fighting?"

"Well, considering the fact that they're from Atlas, they'll probably be strong, disciplined military types with several pre-planned and carefully rehearsed strategies, along with significantly more advanced technology," Weiss said off the basis of the usual types of hunters that Atlas was known for producing.

"Or whoever these guys are," Izuku interjected briefly, showing them a brief picture of Flynt and Neon of Team FNKI. The former was a young, dark-skinned man with dark brown eyes. He wore rectangular sunglasses and a dark fedora with a blue trim on his head, as well as an earring on his right ear. He also wore a dark vest over an untucked white dress shirt, with a loose tie wrapped around the collar. Completing his attire was a pair of dark dress pants, silver dress shoes and a dark glove on his left hand. His weapon of choice was some kind of... trumpet?

Well, they'd certainly seen weirder choices.

The latter of the two was a young girl with a light complexion, with green eyes and moderate red-orange hair done up in four pigtails with light blue streaks in her bangs. As a feline Faunus, her physical trait was that of a cat tail covered with pink fur that became lighter toward the tip. Neon's outfit had a large range of bright colors. She wore a light blue cropped tank top on top of a dark purple bra, dark purple short shorts under a pink combat mini-skirt and white belt with a yellow winking smiley face on the buckle. Two buttons were fixed to her tank top above her right breast, one purple with a cat design and another green one with a heart. She also had a white cat bell collar around her neck, a pair of bracers on her arms and pads on her shins and knees. She wears red roller blades, which she also uses to move around. A tattoo of a shooting star with a red, green and yellow trail winds around her right arm. Her weapon of choice was a bit more logical, though still a bit odd in its own way: a pair of glow stick nun chucks with Dust compatibility.

All in all, the pair that Yang and Weiss were about to go up against were very... funky.

Yes, I made that pun deliberately. I bask in you hate.

"Well, that certainly explains their team name," Weiss said as she pinched the bridge of her nose in frustration, not knowing how Atlas could produce a team this bizarre in the first place.

"Well, I've got a few ideas on how to-"

"Greenie," Yang said with a firmness that, while not hostile, left no room for argument on his part. "Thanks for the offer, but if we do end up getting to the finals and fight each other, I want it to be on our own merits. So that means that we can't help each other out with stuff like strategy for fights, at least for now." A smile returned to her face as she continued, "Besides, you've gotta save those brains for your own single matches ahead of you, right?"

Izuku briefly turned a bit pink from the praise. "E-erm, thanks. G-good luck, you guys!"

"Don't need it, but thanks anyway," Yang said over her shoulder as she followed her white-haired teammate out into the field, trying to calm the steady but noticeable racing of her pulse.

 _By Oum, it took everything I had just to keep myself from blushing._

 _Seriously, can I please just have a normal conversation with the guy without almost going red?! I don't like him for the way he looks dammit! He's just really nice and awkward in the most adorable way possible! And he's really smart, probably even smarter than Weiss!_

 _… he_ is _pretty hot, though._

Yang then shook her head from those thoughts, focusing in on the fight with their current opponents. They were just as odd as Izuku had suggested, name and all.

"Hey! You're Weiss Schnee, right? The heiress."

"I am."

And this is where everything started to unravel when Flynt, though his reasoning was rather understandable, attacked Weiss on a personal level, berating her family's practices and doubting her skill as a fighter.

Yang, being who she was, wasn't going to stand for someone insulting her friend, saying, "Hey! Why don't you-?"

"'Hey! Why don't you-?' That's what you sound like!" Neon interrupted the blonde brawler in what could only be described as one of the most annoying voices she'd ever heard. She didn't want to be rude, but that was the tamest way she could put it.

And that calm was soon to be tested as Neon began to ramble on about rollerblading and... wait...

"WHAT THE HELL DID YOU JUST SAY?!"

Oh no, there would be no calming down until she beat Neon's face in with her own skull! How is that physically possible? It shouldn't be, but Yang was going to damn well make it fucking happen!

… as soon as she could catch up to the chatty little bitch!

 _(a few minutes later, Izuku's POV)_

"Phew! That was a close match," Izuku sighed in relief as the buzzer finally sounded throughout the coliseum, only further punctuated by the echoing **THWAK!** of Yang's insanely strong right hook. Damn, did she have a really good arm.

 _And one that I really don't want to go up against, even on a good day._

Izuku still cheered for them, knowing that Weiss was going to be okay with her team all around her. Wow. How long had it been since STIK had talked as a team? And not just two or three of the members, as a complete, four-man team. A few weeks? A couple months? By Oum, it'd been a while. They needed to sit down and talk for once. Especially Bakugo. He kept running off to do his own thing and it was kinda hurting the group dynamic.

 _I should probably go check in with All Might soon. He seemed like he wanted to talk to me about... something. Maybe it was about that vision I had?_

Izuku was then jostled out of his thoughts by Shoto, who'd just come back from... wherever the hell he'd gone to, and said, "Hey, I'm not gonna be able to train to day."

"Huh?" This was a first. Shoto had never once blow off training. He always showed up for practice like clockwork, never early, never late: he was always, without failure, precisely on time. If something didn't already feel wrong before, it certainly did now.

"Um..., okay, but... why? You've never called off practice before. I mean, there was that one time when we were tracking down Stain, but otherwise..."

"I... I just need time to think," Shoto answered with a pained, though oddly subtle, tone. "… maybe a long time. I'm not quite sure. I'll let you know when I'm up to it."

Izuku was silent for a few beats, swallowing air before he said, "Okay."

And that was it. Shoto turned and walked away, leaving Izuku even more confused than before. Tempest felt his master's distress, and briefly hummed with the tension of a fight.

"No, he'll come to us when he's ready," Izuku whispered to the weapon on his back as he walked down the hallway to where he presumed his mentor was. _I just hope it's soon._

 _(a few minutes later, Professor Peach's office, 3rd person POV)_

The bright orange, messy haired nurse known to Remnant as Peach Shuzenji sighed in frustration at the paperwork the had been piling up for the past few days. Her labcoat was hanging off the back of her chair, leaving her with a sleeveless gray turtleneck and casual blue sandals. Her skin, despite the tan color, which was common among people from Vacuo and Southern Anima, was lightly shining from the sweat she'd been working up with all the damn paperwork she'd been dealing with.

Oum, she hated this time of year. She really, really hated this time of year. Fucking Atlas with their fucking protocols and their fucking regulations that she couldn't keep fucking track of. Fuck them all. Especially Ironwood, damn stickler.

"You need any help with that?"

 _Thank fucking Oum for someone like Toshinori._ "Much obliged."

She moved to make room for her surrogate uncle as she continued filling out some of the regulations that Atlas had rolled for this year. It was almost the same thing every year, but they just could decide which rules to stick with for a single damn year, and the fact that they weren't was rightly pissing her the fuck off!

Then a brief knock came from the door, which Toshinori responded to by quickly hiding behind some of the curtains for the beds, just in case it wasn't someone they were expecting. Peach looked through the hole and saw Izuku standing patiently outside with a little tap to his foot. Damn, that kid was way too cute, in a little brother kind of way.

 _Well, I was never interested in guys anyway._

Peach then opened the door and invited Izuku inside, quickly shutting the door behind her. "He's here, Uncle Toshi."

"You're never going to stop calling me that, are you?" Toshinori poked his head from out of the curtains with a disdainful look on his face. He always did hate being called 'uncle.' Made him feel older than he actually was.

"Not a chance," Peach said with a deadpan, though still cocky tone, a small smile breaking through her lightly tanned face. She wasn't really one for emotions or feelings beyond lust and excitement, at least most of the time, but even she knew that teasing Toshinori was fun as hell. That and she knew how to _really_ hurt him. _Thank you for the pressure point training, grandma, you scary as hell old hag._

Peach nearly chuckled as she almost swore she could hear her grandmother swearing up a storm at that very thought. Ah, good times.

"Thanks again for doing this, Professor Peach. And thanks for fixing up my fingers," Izuku said to the school's local Dust specialist, resident doctor, and often absentee teacher.

"No need. Just keep it short, would ya? I'll probably be getting patients fairly soon," Peach reluctantly placed herself behind the massive pile of paperwork on her desk once more, muttering sailor curses on Ironwood's name the whole time.

"She really doesn't like Ironwood, does she?" Izuku asked Toshinori.

"They have a bit of a rough history," the gangly man admitted, recalling the last time the two had argued over... well, he wasn't exactly sure, but it must've been pretty important, seeing as since then they hadn't spoken in the past three years.

"So... what did you want to talk to me about?" Izuku asked what was to be a rather pressing subject.

"When you were fighting against Hitoshi, I heard a few of the things that he said to you. I'm sorry. It must've been a hard fight, knowing how you could relate to his position," Toshinori said with an apologetic tone.

"I know, but I couldn't just go easy on him because of that. It wouldn't be fair," Izuku looked down to his bandaged fingers, reminding himself why he was here.

Peach just sighed and said, "If Grandma finds out about what you've been pushing, she's going to beat the living shit out of you, Uncle Toshi."

"Urk!" Toshinori stiffened as he remembered the pain that Recovery Girl could dish out of she ever felt the need, responding with a strained voice, "It was necessary! And also, low blow!"

"I regret nothing," Peach said with her trademark silent smirk as she continued to work through her pile.

"Hey, Toshinori? I think I might've had some kind of vision in the middle of the match," Izuku began to explain, which caught both Toshinori and Peach's attention. "I think there were people there. Maybe seven or eight of them? I'm not quite sure. I was under Hitoshi's control and I couldn't think straight. I tried, but I couldn't get my body to listen. And then those figures appeared and I could suddenly think straight. Not for very long, just enough to move my fingers. One of them seemed to have eyes almost exactly like yours. Do you think... maybe the other inheritors of One for All were there, pushing me on, like spirits or something to that effect?"

…

"Wait, I'm a ghost?!" Toshinori burst out in panic

"Augh! I-I thought you'd have answers!" Izuku responded, just as panicked.

 _Seriously, these two have a lot more in common than I thought they would._ Peach thought with and even wider smirk.

"Actually, I did see something like that before, back in my younger days. It might not seem like it now, but you're definitely getting closer to making One for All your own."

"But what is it, exactly?"

"Truth be told, I'm not sure. I've theorized that it might be some kind of residual trace of the previous user's souls once One for All gets passed on. Whatever it is, I'm certain that it won't be interfering with your progress, now or ever.

"Which means that whatever that was wasn't what broke you out of the hypnosis. It was your willpower that broke you free."

…

"Man, that's not nearly as satisfying as I thought it'd be," Izuku said with a frustrated scratch to the back of his neck.

"I _was_ expecting something a bit more flamboyant," Peach too answered truthfully.

"Hey, that's not the point, you two! More importantly, shouldn't you be finding out who Shoto's up against?"

"Oh, yeah!" Izuku darted to the door only briefly shouting, "Thank you both very much!" Over his shoulder before running through the hallway as the door closed behind him.

"…"

"… so, he saw you too?" Peach asked with a serious tone. If it was happening this fast, then... oh Oum, what were they going to do.

"… it's a good thing. He'll be ready for it," Toshinori said, half to himself, almost as though she wasn't the person he was trying to convince. He then breathed heavily as he decided, "Call Ozpin, and tell Qrow to bring Izuku to the office after his training session is done."

"But-"

"I know. He's a kid with a tournament to fight, but we're almost out of time. We... can't afford to wait any longer," Toshinori said with the sternest look he could muster.

 _I'm sorry, Izuku. I hope you'll understand._

 _But sooner or later, you would've learned about_ him _. I just hope this makes it easier on you._

 _(meanwhile, Ozpin's office, Aizawa's POV)_

"Oz, I know you're good with this stuff, but are we entirely sure she's the one?" Aizawa asked with a profile of their Fall Maiden candidate, Pyrrha Nikos, in his hand. "She's too young for this."

"As are all the other candidates we have on the list," Ozpin said matter-of-factually. "And so is Izuku. But, as Toshinori has said, we've simply run out of time."

"I hope you don't regret saying that, Oz. I know I would," Aizawa snapped his scroll shut and pocketed it. "Still, I can't believe you approved of letting Qrow train that kid. That old drunk doesn't exactly work well with others, ya know."

"That is no fault of his. Just a bit of bad luck," Ozpin sipped from his mug.

"… did you just-"

"Yes."

"… that was... the worst dad joke... I have _ever_ had the displeasure of hearing, and I still keep in touch with **_Tai_**."

"I'll take that as a compliment."

"Well, about her... are you absolutely sure?" Aizawa pulled his Scroll back open, showing Pyrrha's profile picture.

"As sure as I can be. She's strong, kind, observant, calm, fore-thinking, but more than anything else... she's ready."

 **A/N: Dun, dun, DUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUN!**

 **… okay, maybe that wasn't an appropriate use of that sound effect, but I still think this is a good place to stop the chapter. Also, sorry about the elaborate music thing. I just thought that would be a cool way to end the fight. Feel free to complain about it in the reviews if it was too confusing!**

 **That aside, I can't thank you guys enough for what you do! I wish I could thank each and every one of you directly! Even though that would probably kill me.**

 **Next Chapter: June 3rd**

 **Huh. I can't believe it's almost been a whole year. Damn, that's something. Oh well! Seeya in the next one, guys!**


	32. Once Upon a Time

**A/N: Guess what time of year it is? KINGDOM HEARTS 3! Holy crap, it exists, it looks awesome, it's real, IT'S COMING!**

 **Anyway, if you can't tell from that, I am a _massive _ fan of Kingdom Hearts. I'd probably place it at number three on my favorite video game series of all time, just under the Jak & Daxter Trilogy at number two and the Persona/Shin Megami Tensei series at number one (because some small part of me will always be edgy).**

 **Although KH isn't really at number three for the story because... well, I don't even have to tell you why, it's basically a meme at this point. I still enjoy the story though! Even if I might not entirely understand everything it throws at me, I can still get most of it.**

 **Either way, I'm incredibly excited for Kingdom Hearts 3. Also, I wrote this whole blurb about the Kingdom Hearts series that was about five hundred words long, but it seemed kinda rude and way too long, so I cut it out. Oh well. Without further ado, I hope you enjoy the chapter!**

 **Review Responses:**

 **Team KITS: Yeah, I can see why that'd be. None of their names started with an R, so it just spelled STIK when it's supposed to be a variation of Strike, which I connected to being a particular shade of white or gray. I should probably change the title to something else, though, to make it less confusing. If you have any suggestions, be sure to let me know!**

 **While I could see Bakugo being quite the leader given the chance, his mindset at the beginning of HeroAca, as well as this story, was not that of a leader. He was really out for himself until he learned to respect his teammates and start becoming more of a team player. And while he is more observant in the HeroAca canon, up until the tournament and towards the end of season one, he has a big problem with tunnel vision, and it does still pop up sometimes.**

 **Also, that is actually a really cute team name that I kinda wish I'd taken into consideration.**

 **Guest: What are you trying to learn from these questions?**

 **If you're talking about in this story, they haven't gone through a lot of development as of yet, but I plan to have them do so in the future. And... well, yeah. Unfortunately, it was, particularly with fan-favorite characters. I'm hoping that Volume 6 will be better in those terms. Always stay positive!**

 **Disclaimer: I do not own RWBY or My Hero Academia. They belong to Monty Oum, Kohei Horikoshi, and their respective publishing companies. Please support the official releases.**

 **I do not own the cover image**

Chapter 32: Once Upon a Time

"Why are you telling me this?" Pyrrha asked in pure confusion. The Maidens were real? The four women who'd sworn to help the world, to inspire hope and give instead of take: they were real?! How?

A brief but deafening silence passed before Ozpin broke the silence once more, this time with an even more alarming statement, "Because we believe that you, Pyrrha Nikos, are the next in line to receive the Fall Maiden's Power."

That in itself was a shock. Her? Why? She was just a student! Granted, she was a lot stronger than most others, but otherwise, there was absolutely nothing remarkable about her! But something Ozpin had said made her stop and recompose.

"We?"

It was at that ironic moment that one of the elevator doors ringed, then opening to reveal Goodwitch, General Ironwood, and...

 _Oh my Oum, it's All Might! He's actually here!_

Indeed, the smiling giant himself barely fit inside of the elevator, having to duck in order to avoid hitting his head on the doorframe. His iconic blonde hair and flawless white grin had inspired her for several years, and just behind her mother, he was the main reason that she'd aspired to become a huntress in the first place.

"Sorry we were late," Ironwood apologized to his old-time friend.

"No need. Qrow and Peach should be coming up soon," Ozpin said with a casual sip of his mug.

"I really hope that kid takes what he's about to hear as well as me and Glynda did," Aizawa commented with worry in his tone. While they had indeed been surprised at the reveal of One for All and it's origin, the other things they'd heard about from Ozpin made the whiplash a bit more bearable.

"Wait, just what is going on?" Pyrrha asked suddenly with a great deal of confusion in her eyes.

 **"In due time, Miss Nikos. If you could simply wait a few more minutes, all shall be explained."**

"O-of course." _He's so much more inspiring in person!_

 _(meanwhile, an elevator, Izuku's POV)_

 _The ride up to Ozpin's office is really intimidating,_ Izuku thought to himself as he resisted the urge to tap his foot so as to not annoy the other two passengers in the ascending box, who flanked either side of him and, though it wasn't official, they almost felt like guards. Not in an uncomfortable way, but they were just... there. But there was one odd subject that wouldn't leave Izuku alone.

"Hey, Qrow?"

"Hm? Something up?" The old drunk asked in a surprisingly sober voice.

"It's not really that big a deal, but why was my dad nicknamed Jade Dragon Strategist? I mean, I get the Strategist part, but the other two words just confuse me."

"I figured you'd ask that sometime," Qrow sighed in admission. "It was a bit confusing at first, but his favorite color was green, and jade's a fancy shade of that. As for the dragon part... well, you know what his quirk was, right?"

"Well, I'm pretty sure he could breathe... fire..." Izuku then stopped in realization and smacked himself in the forehead. "It makes so much sense now!"

"Yeah, that's pretty much how a lot of us reacted," Qrow said with a smirk.

"Only you doubled over laughing," Peach said with her own silent smile.

"Hey, I thought it was pretty funny," the red-eyed reaper quipped back.

It was at this moment that their elevator finally reached the top of the building, opening to reveal the entire rest of the ensemble. Ozpin sat behind his desk with a calm yet tense expression, knowing what was soon to be said and asked, and Aizawa leaning on one of the pillars with his Scroll in hand, with Ironwood standing across from him as if objecting to something he said. Goodwitch was there as well, and she looked more than a little angry with Ironwood for saying something that he probably shouldn't have, and All Might stood in the center of the room, not entirely sure how to handle this. And in the chair in front of Ozin's desk, there sat a confused and rather lost look Pyrrha Nikos.

 _Wait, she's here too? What's going on?_

"Gentlemen," Ozpin said firmly. "You shall settle this at a later time. The others have arrived."

Ironwood looked to where the three now emerged, Izuku stepping further into the room and suddenly feeling very, incredibly small and quite intimidated. This look was not shared by Peach or Qrow, but that was likely because they were giving of some of the larger presences. Regardless of this Ironwood straightened himself and greeted them, "Ah. Thank you for coming, Mr. Midoiya. And... you two as well. Qrow. Peach."

"Ironwood," the two synched, their distaste for the man in front of them obviously evident to everyone in the room. This was only emphasized further when Qrow pulled his flask out of his shirt and took a deliberately long and lengthy drink from it.

"Qrow, could you _please_ not drink right now? This is very important," the metallic man berated him for what he was currently doing, only to have the raven-haired man to flip him the bird as he drank.

"Was that really necessary, Qrow?" Goodwitch asked.

When he finally stopped, Qrow responded, "No, but I've never liked him anyway."

 **"Okay. Now that we've all gathered..."** All Might looked towards Izuku for a brief moment, doing his best to put on a brave face before he turned to Pyrrha and continued, **"Please try to understand, Miss Nikos, that what we're about to tell you is knowledge the likes of which no one has publicly known for near centuries. These are dangerous secrets, and you cannot tell anyone, no matter how trustworthy you may think they are. Not your family, not your friends, and most certainly not the public. Alright?"**

Pyrrha adopted a confused expression at this, not quite understanding what was about to be told to her. But this didn't stop her from shaking herself out of her stupor and nodding too him. "I do."

All Might then nodded back and stood a bit straighter as his form began to steam and slowly shrink down, his clothes loosening, and becoming baggier and baggier, until finally the steam cleared away to reveal Toshinori in all his gangly, deflated glory.

The bronze armored amazon was entirely shocked, her jaw becoming slack upon seeing his true form, a few surprised and exasperated sounds emerging from her throat, unable to speak at the revelation.

"See, this is how I expected you guys to react to what I told you," Toshinori said as he looked to Goodwitch and Aizawa while pointing a bony finger at Pyrrha's shocked form.

"Hey, when you see most of the shit we've seen, something like that's just a memo," Aizawa replied.

"Not that it wasn't shocking, of course. I was rather jarred when I heard it," Goodwitch readjusted her glasses.

"Yeah, that's how it usually goes," Qrow said as he almost took another swig from his flask only to be stopped by Peach, who snatched it right out of his hand and taking one for herself.

"Hey, that's my flask, dammit!" The red-eyed reaper objected, though this did nothing to stop the brightly haired nurse from smirking wryly and taking an even longer swig.

"Now, now, everyone, settle down," Ozpin calmed the rising argument. "I believe you have some questions for us, Miss Nikos?"

Pyrrha nodded, still looking quite bewildered by the revelations, and asked, "I know about the Maiden's tale; I don't know who doesn't; but what is this other tale you're talking about and... why is Izuku here as well?"

The green haired inheritor flinched at that, and nearly began breaking down in hives before managing to right himself and say, "Erm... well, it's really, really long story."

"Longer than you think, actually," Toshinori said as he pulled up two chairs for both he and Izuku. "It might take a while to tell it all, so I'd recommend sitting down."

 _(meanwhile, unknown location in Vale, Tomura's POV)_

"C'mon, c'mon... yes! I finally kicked your ass!" The white-haired man shouted with glee at his gaming handheld, now joyful to have defeated to the boss that had given him so much trouble over the past hour and a half.

"I'm glad to see you're happy, sir," Kurogiri said as he cleaned a glass on his side of the bar at which Tomura was currently sitting. And then, suddenly, a flinch. Not much, not for long, but it was there. "Yes sir, I understand. Please hurry."

"Hm? Who're you talking to, Kurogiri? You finally snap?" Tomura asked with a sarcastic, though still concerned tone.

Only a second later, Kurogiri widened into his portal form and allowed someone quite tall, and equally powerful, to step through him and into their hideout. He wore a dark business suit with a black suit jacket and pants, and a dark gray shirt under it with brown dress shoes to complete the ensemble. This, however, was not what drew Tomura's attention. Instead, he focused on the almost skull-like mask on the man's head, which held symmetrical tubing that almost looked like a collar, which formed the life-support system that allowed him to breathe. This was the man whose name brought pure terror to those who knew it, someone who almost singlehandedly brought Remnant to the brink of destruction so many centuries ago and, some would say, a primary instigator of both the Great War and the Faunus War, simply because he wished to see the aftermath of the battles. This was All for One, the Symbol of Chaos. Tomura's master.

"M-master! You're here!" Tomura exclaimed with glee, like a child seeing their parent for the first time in a very long while.

 **"Indeed I am. I cannot stay here for long, however. Maybe... forty-five minutes at the very least, or an hour if I have the strength for it,"** All for One said, his voice almost bristling with his restrained power. If he didn't, it would lead All Might to their hideout. That much power had more perks than just the strength and the physical resistances, much to their frustration.

"Ah. I see," Tomura said. "What's in that case you have?"

 **"Patience, Tomura. You shall know soon enough," **All for One ensured his apprentice as he shifted the black briefcase in his right hand. Tomura didn't quite know why, but he felt some kind of connection to whatever was in that case. But he held himself back. He'd learned to be more preserved since his previous failures. That and Torchwick had been a really good friend to bounce off of and learn from.

 _Huh. Friend. I... don't think I've ever had one of those. We'll get him back, though. I promised the little ice-cream kid, after all._

 **"Is something on your mind, Tomura?"** All for One asked in a neutral tone as they walked to a deeper part of their headquarters, away from prying eyes and eager ears. They were not to be disturbed during this time.

"I'm fine."

 **"You don't look fine to me."**

Tomura still said nothing. All for One simply sighed and asked, **"Do you remember that old story I used to tell you?"**

"How could I forget? You told it to me every night for ten years," Tomura answered honestly.

 **"Can you tell me what took place?"**

"… okay, maybe I need a bit of a refresher on it," the white-haired man admitted.

All for One chuckled at that, then continuing, **"Humility is a good trait to have as a leader, Tomura. Never forget that. People relate more to those who aren't perfect and yet strive on anyway. Especially the downtrodden. Now then, I do believe we have a story to revisit."**

 **(from here it'll switch between All Might and All for One telling the same story with some minor differences. You should be able to know who's telling which parts. Now, without further ado, on to the fairytale!)**

 **"Many centuries ago, before the kingdoms, before the discovery of Dust, and only as the barest hints of Faunuskind began to spread throughout the world, humanity had been pushed to the brink of extinction by the Grimm. Hope was nearly lost and fear was seeping in."**

"But all was not lost. There were two brothers, one older and one younger, who'd heard rumors of a being with immense power, one who might help them with their plight and save them from extinction. And so, with hope in their hearts, and support at their backs, they set out to find this being and save what was left of humanity."

 **"It took many months, but eventually, through hardship and trial alike, they found the being on the island now known as Vytal. They did not have a true form, or a true body, merely existing as almost pure energy. However, they were exceptionally wise and just as powerful, as the brothers soon discovered for themselves."**

"The entity knew their reasons for coming to them but was hesitant about giving them shelter and the power to properly defend themselves. They suspected one of them would grow dark and bring much unnecessary suffering to those whom they wished to protect. The brothers assured him that they would do what they had to in order to ensure that this wouldn't happen, and the entity gave that which they'd come for: the shelter they'd asked for, and the power to protect humanity and the growing Faunus population."

 **"From this came the birth of many things. Aura, the Oaths, Dust, and, with time, the Silver Eyed Warriors, men and women so powerful that they could slay the greatest of Grimm simply by looking at them. But the greatest powers were granted to the brothers who found the entity. The power to give to others and power to take and amass a vast array of abilities, the former given to the younger and the latter given to the elder. And so, with that final act, the entity left them with a final warning and dispersed their energy across the world, allowing everyone, even the lowest of the low, to have the potential to do great things. The Inclined and the Berserkers are two such beings, and, recently, a new power has emerged from this wealth of potential. A fusion of souls, if you will. The concept itself is quite fascinating. That is for another time, however. Moving on..."**

"As the years went by, the elder brother became far too curious for his own good. What were the Grimm made of? Where did they come from? Can they be controlled and made into herding animals, or were they simply wild, mindless beasts with the intent to kill and slaughter all that lived. What was Dust, truly? Was it nature's wrath unleashed or simply a naturally occurring resource? And, there came the question that would change the world forever. How far can my power grow?"

 **"This sparked a revolution, as the elder brother began to gather those with similar mindsets and complacent boredom, ensuing chaos and bringing havoc once more. The Grimm were no longer humanities main threat. But the younger brother was all too objective to this sentiment, despite his lack of destructive ability. The elder brother took pity on him, however, and gave him the ability to enhance that which he already possessed."**

"It was here that the younger brother discovered the true power which the entity had bestowed upon him. A seemingly useless power, to pass on that which he had to another of his own choosing. And unlike other semblances, All for One could not take this power form him. It could not be stolen, only given. This battle between the two would continue for centuries, shaping much of history as we now know it. The most recent clash between the two powers was about five years ago, between me and that same man who's lived for far longer than he should've."

 **"The clash began in the wastes of Vacuo and continued for some time after that. Eventually, the fight brought itself to the Grimmlands, and we were both on our last legs. As you well know, Tomura, that battle left me looking like... well, the helmet isn't what I'd call the most appealing choice of clothing, but it does help keep me alive. And All Might was not so lucky as to leave unscathed. And so, our battle still continues, until the day the other is defeated. Forever."**

 **(And that's the end of the fairytale. I hope you enjoyed it! Please be sure to let me know if it was good!)**

 _(Izuku's POV)_

"And that's the story. Any questions?" Toshinori asked the two. Pyrrha looked shocked at this revelation, her jaw hanging open and her eyes going wide. Izuku, while his surprise was far less visible than Pyrrha's, he was still quite shocked as well. That was the origin of the power that now dwelt within him? It was certainly... odd, but it also felt rather grand. Was he really worthy to inherit this responsibility? A Fractured against one of the most powerful people in the entire world?

But he shook these thoughts from his mind and refocused on the topics at hand, and just as he was about to ask some of the things that were currently pressing on his mind, Pyrrha managed to beat him to the punch. "In that story, you mentioned terms like 'Inclined' and 'Berserkers,' along with some kind of soul fusion and something called a 'Silver Eyed Warrior.' What are they? And pardon my repetition, but why is Izuku here as well?"

"Erm... well, the reason Izuku is here is that... he's my apprentice," Toshinori admitted, awkwardly scratching the back of his head. Damn nervous ticks.

This answer caused Pyrrha's eyes to widen with surprise, only supported by the fact that her mouth was also agape from the answer. Izuku then flinched when she suddenly turned to him and asked, "Is this true?"

"Y-yeah, more or less," Izuku said as he leaned away from the curious redhead.

Pyrrha then sat back and sighed heavily, saying, "This is... a lot to take in. And I still have so many questions. I imagine Izuku does as well, but this is... quite overwhelming."

"Sorry to interrupt this little talk, but we really need to get on with everything else," Qrow said rather impatiently, with Peach and Aizawa nodding to this sentiment as he continued, "There's a lot to cover, and all they need to know are the basics. Save the rest for when we have more time."

"You have a point," Toshinori relented as he stood up and walked to the elevator. "This way. There's something you two need to see."

Although it was a little cramped, the majority of them managed to fit onto the elevator, leaving Peach and Aizawa behind in case anyone decided to go into Ozpin's office while they were down in the vault. Peach had seen it more than enough times, and Aizawa was just kinda creeped out by it.

Izuku's attention was caught once more when they finally managed to reach some sort of bottom floor. They were obviously far below ground level; he'd managed to count the number of seconds it took to get there, but seeing the size and sheer scale of this secret place was quite intimidating, to say the least. The arches that held the place up were massive, and the stonework was, while basic, looked to be made with the sole purpose of withstanding nearly anything.

Ozpin, Ironwood, and Qrow all moved forward with purpose in their strides while Goodwitch and Toshinori stayed to ensure that Izuku and Pyrrha kept up.

"I believe you had more questions to ask?" Goodwitch asked Pyrrha.

"… maybe a few less than before," the redheaded amazon admitted to her teacher.

"Well, we'll do our best to answer them," Toshinori assured her as they followed the leading trio deeper into the heart of Beacon.

"… I don't think I understand. You said that I was next in line for the Fall Maiden's powers, but I still have no idea what you mean by that," Pyrrha said.

"Wait, the Maidens are real?" Izuku asked so quickly and with such excitement that one could've mistaken him for an eager child.

"They're real, alright. I know it might be-"

"This is so cool!"

.

..

…

"… you're a lot calmer about this than I thought you'd be," Toshinori admitted.

"Not calm, excited!" Izuku corrected as he almost began to ask a tirade of questions that had built up over the past few seconds before receiving a rather 'we'll talk later' glare from Goodwitch, quickly calming the boy down (in fear) as he continued, "B-but you can explain that to me later."

Goodwitch then continued with her answer, "Well, the Maidens have been around for centuries, almost as long as One for All and All for One; and no two Maidens are alike. As the seasons change, so too do the Maidens. During the time of the second inheritor of One for All, when the brotherhood was first founded, we learned that the Maiden's powers were always passed on to young women without exception and that those powers stayed with them until their deaths. The powers would then leave the Maiden's body and search for a new host, in order to ensure that the powers would never truly be lost."

"So... how are the Maidens chosen?" Pyrrha asked in a nervous tone.

"Through a serious of incredibly stupid and unnecessarily convoluted rules," Qrow answered with a very, very irritated tone.

"Qrow!"

"Glynda, it's fine," Toshinori said, stopping the inevitable argument that always ensued between the two whenever this particular topic was brought up. "Besides, he does have a point."

Goodwitch sighed in reluctance, saying, "I suppose he does," before turning back to the two newcomers and further explaining, "It was during the time of the sixth inheritor that we discovered more about the process of Maidenhood, mainly because, by some rare stroke of luck that hasn't happened ever since, she was, herself, a Maiden. And it was then discovered that the inheritance process was much more... intimate than we'd first believed."

"… intimate?"

Toshinori then took over, "Well, Nana's predecessor managed to find out that once a Maiden dies, the person in their final thoughts are at the top of the list for potential inheritance."

"Unless it's a guy or some old hag. Because then it'll usually go to somebody random, and then this job gets a lot harder than it needs to be. It's the complete opposite of One for All's inheritance, which is a lot more symbolic and easier to keep track of. But that's also one of the things that makes it pretty vulnerable, especially when compared to the Maiden's powers," Qrow explained.

"Ya got that, kid?" The red-eyed reaper said as he looked to the freckled boy, "If you die, that's it. One for All goes poof, and the world will probably go to hell. I know it's a lot to take in, but that's the gravity of this situation. Okay?"

Izuku nodded firmly, despite the fact that his inheritance now had far more significance than he'd first thought. In truth, he was actually feeling quite insignificant, like he wasn't worthy of this legacy that he would eventually have to carry on his own. But he could dwell on those thoughts later, then asking, "So, why now, specifically? Wouldn't this have been easier once we graduated?"

"If we're being realistic, we're almost out of time. Tensions between the human and faunus populations have been growing ever since the end of the Faunus War, and that's caused the Grimm to get even stronger, more prevalent, and a lot more things than we'd like have been going to shit ever since the sixth inheritor died, and it might not be long before this peace we've been enjoying for so long evaporates and everything goes to hell again despite All Might's damnedest efforts to inspire hope."

"Are you... talking about war?"

"Not between nations, if we can help it," Ironwood said with confidence in his voice, which only caused Qrow to huff in further annoyance, muttering something about his specialists under his breath, before he turned and continued to them, "We'll fill you two in on everything else once you're with us, but long story short, one of the Maidens got attacked, and part of her power was stolen. We don't know how, who, or why, and despite our best efforts, she doesn't have much longer."

 _(meanwhile, undisclosed location in Vale, Tomura's POV)_

"Well, that certainly fills in some of the gaps I had," Tomura admitted.

 **"Good, good. Now, I assume you're wondering why I've brought you down here?"** All for One asked his apprentice with his hands, and the case in them, behind his back with casual yet still menacing aura around him. At least, if your name wasn't Tomura Shigaraki. They were currently at the deepest part of the hideout, a rather large and barren space that was mostly used for combat practice. It was how he made the pairs due to combat compatibility. Actually, maybe he should rethink a few of those pairs; it seemed as though Himiko and Twice might make a good stealth/assault team. Or maybe Himiko and Neo, depending on the situation.

"That was on my mind, yeah."

 **"Well, wonder no longer."** All for One raised his left hand and snapped his fingers, revealing a figure in the center of the room chained to the floor by their arms. They were heavily scarred and bald, with their skin pigment being an almost unnatural shade of white.

"Huh. Who's the person that pissed you off?" Tomura asked rather casually.

 **"A particularly effective mole who'd managed to infiltrate my old league. Truth be told, they're the reason All Might even managed to find us. So, when I found out about that little tidbit... let's just say that for the first time in an incredibly long while, I rather enjoyed placing someone in as much pain as I could."**

"Wow. You really screwed up, didn't ya?" Tomura asked the chained figure with sarcasm in his voice.

Instead of responding, the figure only stayed stock still, broken and beaten from unimaginable pain. There were numerous scars located in countless regions on their body, several being wide enough to have likely severed nerves. The white-haired man gave an impressed whistle when he saw this, turning back to his master as he asked, "So, are we here to make this traitor sing a swan song or something?"

 **"You can call it that, yes. But I shall not be the one writing the melody,"** All for One said as he placed the case on a nearby table, flicking open the locks in an unintentionally dramatic fashion.

"Oh. Well, why didn't you say so?" Tomura said as he reached towards the traitor's neck to snuff out what little was left of their life-

 **"Not like that, Tomura," **All for One said in his rarely used firm tone, which caused Tomura to pull back his hand almost immediately. Apparently, he wanted it done in a very specific manner, and when he wanted something done like that, you either complied or suffered. The white-haired man then approached the table the All for One had just backed away from, revealing the inside of the case he'd been carrying. It contained a mid-sized, curved, sword with a thick black sheath, a gunmetal grey guard, and oppositely curved handle, which was wrapped in dark blue cord. It was a scimitar. Huh.

From the size of that case, Tomura was actually expecting something a bit different, like maybe an assault rifle or an extendable polearm or maybe a certain sword that perpetuated a very specific stereotype often associated with people who shared his particular hair pigment. Seriously, it was kinda annoying.

 **"This weapon was made with a particularly rare type of Dust. One that shares properties with your disintegration magic, to be precise. Go on, pick it up."**

"Whoa, you used black Dust for this thing?" Tomura said as he eagerly picked up the weapon, careful to not use a full grip and he unsheathed the blade. It was as thick as the sheath had suggested, with a dark grey color scheme and a gleaming edge that looked so sharp that it might've been able to cut through solid iron like warm butter. "It's that super rare stuff you can only find in Menagerie's desert, right?"

 **"It was the main component, but I used a variety of other Dust types to ensure that it wouldn't destroy everything it touched, though it can still do that via activation. I also used gravity Dust in order to ensure that it would be as effortless to wield as possible."**

Tomura gave the sword a few test swings, feeling the balance and seeming precision of the weapon he now held. It was near perfect. But suddenly, his fingers, slipped, causing the white-haired man to have to catch it with a full grip. However, instead of disintegrating, as any other weapon would, the scimitar almost seemed to power up, the color now fading to a full black with a powerful, almost air effective hum.

"Whoa. That's... surprising," Tomura said as the weapon hummed something, almost like a greeting to its wielder. "Wait, did it just talk?!"

 **"Yes and no. But, save your questions for another time. I believe you have something to do,"** All for One gestured to the still chained, still lifeless, traitor.

Tomura complied, approaching them with his scimitar clutched in and eager grip giving it a few twirls before holding up the traitor's head and taunting, "Sionara, dumbass," before stabbing them straight through the chest. Blood spurted out of the now gaping wound, finding their marks on the ground as the traitor gasped for the last bit of air they would ever breathe. As the traitor exhaled, and blood dripped down the edge, Tomura pulled the scimitar their body, letting it fall limply to the floor in a most ungraceful fashion. He noticed that the wound was considerably wider than it should've been, likely due to his weapon's destructive properties.

"Hey... I think I've got a name for this thing."

 **"So soon? Impressive,"** All for One remarked as he placed his hand where his chin normally would be, giving him a bit if a thinker's pose.

"Oblivion. That's your name," Tomura said as he looked down at the now named scimitar, the blade humming in acceptance of its title.

 _(meanwhile, Beacon Vault, Izuku's POV)_

"We will give you time to think on this proposal. But know that before the Vytal Festival is over, we will need your answer."

That was a lot to take in. As if the origin of One for All wasn't enough of a bombshell on its own, they'd just learned some pretty harrowing stuff. The prospect of Aura transference was particularly disturbing, and Pyrrha was looking incredibly conflicted about the decision before her. Izuku wanted to help her, try and talk her through this. But this was much more serious than just gaining power. If she did do this, there was a chance that she could lose her entire identity. That was not something to take likely, nor something he could advise her with, despite the fact that the green haired inheritor wanted to aid her regardless.

"I'll take you back upstairs," Goodwitch offered. "I imagine you need more time to process this."

Pyrrha only nodded in response, her eyes now seemingly fixated on the floor as Goodwitch lead her to the elevator with an apologetic look the whole way. No one should have to bear this kind of burden, especially not someone as young as her. But... desperate times.

Izuku moved to go back up as well but was stopped by a hand on his shoulder. He turned to find Qrow and Toshinori behind him with knowing gazes, the former saying, "Not yet, kid. There are some more things that you need to know."

"And while I imagine that Miss Nikos will likely learn of this later, it's best that we fill you in on some more of the details now," Toshinori confirmed with a solemn nod. Whatever they were about to explain, it was important. Very important.

"Well, before we do that, I think it might do to have this conversation elsewhere," Ozpin said. They then made their way from the center vault and instead walked down the left corridor that had been near the entrance. The space itself was filled with fairly modern medical tech, with a few contraptions that he hadn't seen in Peach's office. Maybe this was what she meant when she kept referring to her 'playroom.'

"Before we begin, Mr. Midoriya, there are a few things that need to be explained," Ironwood said as he pressed a few keys on a holographic keyboard before taking a seat behind the desk, then gesturing to the chairs in front of him. Izuku and Toshinori took their seats, while Ozpin stood near Ironwood and Qrow leaned on a nearby pillar. "The first being one of the terms that Toshinori mentioned earlier: the Inclined. They are, to put it simply, people besides the Maidens who can use magic. Not to nearly the same extent or destructive potential, but it's magic nonetheless. It can be very complicated, with the fact that magic can often be mistaken for a semblance or a quirk, but the real difference is that it doesn't need an outside source to work, not even an Aura in some cases."

"And, this is where things get really weird really fast," Qrow piped in. "It's really just a theory at this point, and we don't have a lot of data to go off of, but it seems like you'd need a complete soul in order to utilize any kind of magic. Which brings us to this part... damn, this is really hard to condense."

"I told you: this is complicated," Toshinori reminded him.

"It is. But that's not the point right now," Ozpin said as he turned to Izuku, then continuing, "Your father, Hisashi, was one of the Inclined. And we believe that you may have inherited his magical ability."

…

"What?"

That was all Izuku could manage to say. As if the other revelations he'd learned not half an hour ago weren't enough, this just shook his whole world even more than it already had been. Qrow had said that his dad's powers were really damn useful, but this...

"My apologies. You must be rather confused about all of this," Ozpin said.

"… why didn't anyone tell me this?" Izuku asked with a scarily neutral tone.

"It's not that we didn't want to, Izuku," Toshinori assured his apprentice. "We couldn't. I couldn't. I only found out about Hisashi just recently myself, and even back then, you wouldn't have believed us. This knowledge would only cause you panic, and... even now, I can tell it hurts. I'm sorry."

A few seconds of uncomfortable silence passed through the room, making the air all the tenser. But he then continued, "Does my mom know?" As he looked Ozpin straight in the eye. The man knew a lot, and something, he wasn't exactly sure what, was telling him that he knew plenty more than what he'd told him and Pyrrha.

"To our knowledge, your mother knows nothing about this. And, if Hisashi _did_ know what he truly was, he didn't want her to know," Ironwood said, trying to draw the heat away from his old friend.

"But let's get to why we're here in the first place, namely this," Qrow said as he walked over to the LED board and placed what looked to be an x-ray picture of a sphere like essence. Izuku could recognize this shape all too well, particularly the eighth of a section which, combined with his double-jointedness in his pinky toes, had spelled out most of his life before meeting All Might. This was the undeniable proof that he was a Fractured.

Qrow sighed in reluctance, having to show Izuku images like this, but he continued anyway. "This was taken about a year and a half ago, just a few days before you met Toshinori." The red-eyed reaper then pulled up another picture, but this one was different. His soul was the same as before, but something seemed a bit off. Like the gap had lessened by just the slightest fraction. "This was taken back when Peach was giving everyone medical exams at the start of the year. It's basically the same, but what's really got us concerned is the next one."

He then pulled up the third picture. Unlike the other two before it, it contained a nearly full sphere. Nearly. Full. And if the caption at the bottom of the picture was true, then...

… it was his.

Izuku went wide-eyed, only staring at the picture without making even the slightest sound. Qrow noticed this, and with a heavy tone, continued, "This was taken just a few days ago, when Peach gave another round of physicals to most of the competitors. If the accuracy is to be believed, then your soul seems to be mending, becoming whole."

"But that's... no way, that's impossible. I'm not... I'm not..." Izuku tried to object to this, but then found that this picture, combined with everything that had been happening recently: the flashes, all the times that everything slowed down, that one vision in the arena when Coco and Yatsu were fighting... well, it was undeniable proof that he wasn't the same anymore.

Ironwood then stood up and took over, explaining, "What has us the most concerned is that despite our best efforts, we haven't been able to confirm very many Inclined in recent years, and even so there has never been anything like this. Truth be told, once your soul truly becomes whole again, potentially anything could happen."

"And it might not leave you the same person when it does," Ozpin finished with an ominous implication now hanging over their heads. Izuku, as Pyrrha had before, now found himself rather fascinated with the floor. This was too much. How was he supposed to handle this? What was he supposed to do? What would All Might do?

As if on cue, Toshinori stood and said, "I think that's enough for one day. He'll need some more time to process all of this."

Ironwood nodded in confirmation while Qrow looked rather... well, pissed off. He really, really didn't want to show Izuku this stuff so soon. It might have the opposite result, and from what Qrow could tell he still wasn't over his dad's death. That was very sensitive, very personal, territory, and they'd just trespassed on it.

Ozpin, however, walked over to the freckled inheritor, placing a comforting hand on his shoulder as he said, "I won't pretend that this isn't hard to understand. This must be rather jarring for you. But understand that if you ever need to talk, or if you have any questions at all, we'll do our best to answer them. Alright?"

All Izuku could do was give a noncommittal nod to the spectacled headmaster before Toshinori helped him stand from his seat and guided him to the elevator once more, his eyes seemingly glued to the floor the entire time.

 _(meanwhile, Team STIK's room, Shoto's POV)_

 _"Shoto, are you sure you're alright?"_ Momo asked through the slightly scratchy signal of Shoto's Scroll.

"… I don't know," was all he could say, because he truly wasn't sure. He had the support of his teammates, and this tournament was rather fun, but Endeavor... he always seemed to find a way to worm his way into most of his life. No matter how far he got, the man was always there. Watching. Waiting for him to use his left side.

 _"Look, I know it's hard with your father being there, but please try not to think about him. It'll be hard, but I know you can do it. You helped me through my hang-ups, after all. If you ever need anything, please don't hesitate to ask."_

"Thank you. I promise I'll try." It was all he could do, really. He could try. Whether or not he failed was out of his hands.

 _"Talk to you later?"_

"Definitely. I love you."

 _"Love you too. Bye,"_ Momo said in longing as she hung up, causing Shoto to fully lean back his chair and sigh. Man, this tournament was getting a lot heavier than he ever wanted it to be. Maybe not the fighting itself, but the context behind it just couldn't let him relax.

He then breathed in heavily to calm his nerves, sitting upright as he did so. There was something that had been bothering him ever since that fight against Hitoshi and Hanta. He'd never really thought much of it before, and he wasn't even focused enough to get a proper feel for it. But now that he could think a bit more clearly, though not to the point he no longer felt stressed, he found that something about the way Izuku had released his power in the ring felt eerily familiar. Like the time he and many others were around to witness the fight between All Might and the artificial Grimm; he remembered it was called a 'Nomu,' or something to that effect.

Then, he made the connection, standing from his seat as he whispered to himself, "Izuku, we are in for a _very_ long talk."

 _(meanwhile, the sparring ring, Bakugo's POV)_

The blonde direwolf faunus breathed out heavily, rubbing his now tender joints from his now finished training session on with various, now broken, shrapnalized, or otherwise brutally mangled training dummies. Goodwitch was going to have a fit, but at the moment, he really didn't care. His pain tolerance was building and his joints were able to handle the explosions a lot better than they had before. Maybe he could try out that one other technique now...

But his ears twitched as his head turned to the entrance of the room, feeling as though someone was there. But all he found was nothing, the entrance being as empty as it had been ten minutes ago. _Damn, what the hell's up with my senses today?_

"Yo! Bakugo! You okay?" Kirishima called to him from across the arena, where he and his team were also training. Well, Ashido and Tsuyu were having some post-battle banter and Tokoyami was having a discussion with Shadow about what he assumed were better fighting techniques.

"None of your damn business, porcupine," he responded with his usual tone, though it did hold a bit of unintentional playfulness.

"See? He's fine," the wolverine faunus assured his teammates.

"Well then, let's kick it into high gear! Just because we aren't fighting in the next round doesn't mean we can't improve!" Tenya yelled to all the occupants of the arena with Pride pointed skyward.

"Tenya, we're already in high gear," Jaune pointed out in mid-meditation, with Lancelot currently practicing various swordplay techniques beside him. Ren was also meditating, though in a far more traditional sense, with his eyes closed and no disturbances whatsoever.

And then there was Nora, who was currently writing something down in a rather pink and bedazzled journal labeled 'Nora's Book of Explosive Secrets!' She'd taken to writing in it after seeing Deku's own journals one too many times and deciding that it looked like a lot of fun. To their surprise, Nora was surprisingly detailed with her notes, which had proven whenever she decided to share them (which was pretty rare), despite her seemingly silly and nonacademic attitude. In her own words: _"I'm hyperactive, not stupid."_

Then, Lancelot caught his attention as the white giant suddenly flickered out of sight, causing Jaune to gasp in surprise. What the hell just happened?

"Are you alright?" Ren asked his leader, with Nora taking her nose out of her notebook to observe her seemingly distressed leader.

"I'm alright, but Lance kinda... well, I don't know what happened just now," the blonde knight admitted to his teammates.

"Then start meditating and get some answers outta him, Blondie," Bakugo said in his usual blunt manner. It only took that to get Jaune to close his eyes again and have what was to be a rather lengthy and explanatory conversation with his gigantic armor avatar. Oum, that sounded weird.

As he turned away from this, however, he found Tenya standing behind him with a concerned look behind his glasses, asking, "Are you alright, Bakugo?"

"What'd make you think I wasn't?"

Tenya sighed at his partner's attempted question dodging, continuing, "You've been distracted and rather tense for a while now, and it's starting to worry me. I know that a lot's changed since we were at Torino's, but-"

"But nothin.' Thanks for the concern, Four Eyes, but I'm still in ass-kicking shape, so don't bother wasting your worries on me."

This was only a diversion to what the spectacled boy really wanted to ask his teammate, and they both knew it. But, despite himself, Tenya played along with it, knowing that whatever was on Bakugo's mind wasn't something he wanted to talk about, especially not with everyone present. "Alright. But if you ever need to talk about something, please don't hesitate to ask."

"Can do, Four Eyes," Bakugo said as he stretched his worn-out arms, then turning to the exit and saying over his shoulder, "I'm going into town for a bit. Seeya you later, dimwits."

"Later, ya pyromaniac!" Nora yelled after him in jest as he exited the arena, briefly cracking his neck before texting Mint on meeting up in town. He wasn't sure why, but he felt like she was someone he could at least talk to about his problems and not judge him for them. Not that Tenya wasn't a good guy, it just seemed like she understood his thought process a bit more than his friend did. Even though he didn't exactly trust her.

 _Man, what is wrong with me?_

 _(meanwhile, undisclosed location in Vale, Neo's POV)_

 _Seriously, what is wrong with me?_ Neo thought to herself as she texted the direwolf faunus back. They'd met up again briefly about two days ago, during which she'd taken the liberty of snatching Bakugo's Scroll and swapping their respective numbers. It was also fun to annoy him, so that was a plus. There was also something that was kinda comforting about having a friend outside her criminal life, for the first time in... well, ever, actually.

Though she definitely wasn't going to share this information with anyone else at the base. If they found out, they'd try to exploit it. Especially Cinder, who she didn't really have the highest opinion of. Or Tomura, who, despite almost being like a surrogate uncle to her, wouldn't exactly take the news of her... acquaintance in a very calm manner.

"Yo!" Neo looked up to see Spinner emerging from the lower floor, probably cleaning up after Tomura and that rather terrifying man had finished doing... well, whatever the hell they were doing. "What's up?"

 _"Going into town for a bit."_

"Awww. Again?" Himiko said as she peeked out from where Spinner had just emerged with her flick open knives bound to her arms with chains. Huh. He really did tie them to her. "Why can't we come with you?"

 _"Because you'd try to kill the first cute guy you saw and Spinner stands out like a sore thumb. No offense."_

"None taken. Besides, you're not wrong, I do kinda stand out," the iguana faunus admitted with an awkward scratch on the back of his head. "And don't you have some stuff to do with Twice or something?"

"No, we don't!" They heard Twice yell from the basement, causing all of them to sweatdrop as Spinner commented, "I can barely understand what he says half the time."

"Oh, come on, he isn't all that bad. And his clones make for some great shows," Himiko said with a sadistic smile on her face.

 _"Well, see you guys later!"_ Neo typed to them as she headed to the exit of the base, briefly taking a moment to snap her fingers and change herself into Mint Chip before finding her way through the city with one particular thought on her mind.

 _I need to warn Bakugo about this. I don't know how I'm gonna do it, but I know that I don't want him to die._

 _(meanwhile, undisclosed location outside Vale, Adam's POV)_

Just a few more measly days and they would finally have what they desired. Humanity would pay for every slight, every jaded whisper, every crack of those unspeakably painful whips, they would finally pay! And it would be glorious. But first...

"How are the prosthetics?" The bull faunus asked his old-time ally, Serpent Saw, now fitted with a black jumpsuit and violet trench coat, the former with the sigil of the With Fang emblazoned onto his chest in their iconic crimson while the trench coat held a symbol of a cobra's head emblazoned onto the back in white. Now, he also had three state of the art Atlas prosthetics, which had been painted purple and black and modified to his liking.

"They'll take some adjustment, but I believe I'll be able to make full use of them by the Fall," the serpentine faunus admitted. A dull click and shifting gears caused his right hand to open and bring out a built-in chainsaw the length of his arm. "I do believe that I'm a bit rusty when it comes to combat, however. Would you mind a quick spar?"

Adam chucked at that. "All you had to do was ask."

 _(meanwhile, the Fairgrounds, Izuku's POV)_

 _"Well Barty, those last few fights were quite entertaining, were they not?"_

Izuku still sat motionless in the Fairgrounds bar with a glass of water in his hand and looked at the monitor with an emotionless stare, still processing what had been said to him two hours ago. He didn't know what was supposedly truthful anymore. And that brotherhood that All Might was a part of. They seemed to mean well, but he had no idea if he could really trust them. And there was so much that he just didn't understand.

The broadcast then caught his attention once more when Oobleck announced, _"Now that the finals are almost underway, it's time to see which pair will be dueling each other in place of Team MTN! And the randomization process begins... now!"_

Izuku sighed as he thought, _Maybe this will help me get my mind off of things,_ while taking a sip from his glass and the roulette spun and spun and finally stopped on...

…

 _"And there you have it folks! Be sure to tune in tommorrow afternoon to witness the duel between two of Beacon's best and brightest: Izuku Midoriya and Shoto Todoroki of Team STIK!"_

 _… and everything just got worse._

As if on que, he felt a hand tap on his shoulder. He turned to find Shoto standing next to him with a conflicted look in his eye, then saying, "We really need to talk."

Izuku simply nodded and followed his partner and leader back to Beacon proper, wondering all the way there, _Okay, I've just had to deal with learning that the Seasonal Maidens are real, One for All having a lot more historical and mythical significance than I thought it did, some kind of semi-deity giving humanity the power to fight back, there are three terms from that story I still know nothing about, Pyrrha having a potentially life altering decision to make, my dad being one of the very few people who can use magic, me possibly inheriting said magic, and that there is a potential time limit on my life or worse, my sanity. How can things possibly get any more complicated?_

 **A/N: Oh, you have no idea...**

 **Well, this is the longest chapter that I've written in a long time. Be sure to ask me questions in the review if I need to clarify anything, though I will try to explain this stuff in future chapters the best I can. If you need a simpler explanation for what happened: the Inclined can use magic to an extent and they need a full soul to utilize it properly, though not an Aura.**

 **Well, I certainly hope you enjoyed! Feel free to complain about how complicated I've made this in the reviews!**

 **Next Chapter: June 17th**

 **Seeya in the next one!**


	33. Scalded Memories

**A/N: Three. Hundred. Favorites.**

 **Eighty. Thousand. Views.**

 **.**

 **..**

 **…**

 ***off in the distance, you might hear screams of pure joy and happiness from beyond time and space. It's basically like DBZ Abridged's Vegeta scream, but with happiness instead of pure rage. He's been doing that for the past hour now. Please help***

 **THANK YOU ALL SO MUCH! YOU'RE THE BEST! ENJOY! THIS ONE'S FOR YOU GUYS!**

 **Disclaimer: I do not own RWBY or My Hero Academia. They belong to Monty Oum, Kohei Horikoshi, and their respective publishing companies. Please support the official releases.**

 **I do not own the cover image**

Chapter 33: Scalded Memories

"So... what did you need to talk to me about?" Izuku asked his partner, who was giving him an incredibly cold and calculating look, like he was trying to get something out of him. They were currently standing across from each other in their dorm room, Todoroki leaning against one of the far walls and Izuku sitting in his desk chair.

"Erm... that others are training in the ring. Maybe we should go there and help them?"

Still no response. Just that same, unreadable stare. It was kinda unsettling. He could deal with people screaming their heads off, Bakugo had given him plenty of practice in that regard, but this silent intimidation tactic was very new and infinitely more terrifying to him. Worse still, it was from his partner and leader, someone who he trusted like a brother. Why was he even doing this? What had happened?

"I... got overwhelmed," Shoto finally began. "Before you broke out of the hypnosis, Hanta nearly got me. And I almost broke a promise that I made to myself a very long time ago. I know that you have no idea what it is, but it's very important to me. And you deserved to know."

Izuku then noticed an uncomfortable tension within his leader's left hand. Did this have something to do with his other half? He could've mopped the floor with nearly anyone here without restraining himself like that. There was a reason that the only student at Beacon who had ever beaten him seemed to be Pyrrha. And even then, just barely. So why hold back?

"I don't think anyone else has felt it yet. Their senses aren't nearly as sharp as ours. I think Bakugo might have his suspicions, but other than that, no one seems to know. When you broke from the hypnosis, I sensed your power. It reminded me of when All Might and Nomu fought."

"Okay... is that all?" Izuku was starting to get really nervous now. Had he figured it out?

"I'm saying that in that moment, compared to the other times you didn't restrain yourself, and the fact that he talks to you in private, your power felt almost the same as All Might's. And he's helping you, guiding you."

 _Oh crap, he's putting it together! Oh Oum, what the hell do I do? How do I throw him off?_

"Izuku, tell me honestly," Shoto said.

"Are you All Might's secret kid or something like that?"

.

..

…

 _Am I... WHAT?!_

"Well? Are you?"

"What? No, no way! That isn't it at all! But even if I was I'd probably say that anyway, so you'd probably never believe me no matter what. Anyway, I promise you've got the wrong idea," Izuku tried to assure his teammate. "And why would you even think that about me, anyway? Did I do something to suggest that or... what?"

Shoto breathed heavily before he continued. "The way you worded that is rather interesting. 'That isn't it at all.' It would suggest that there's something between you that you're not supposed to talk about."

Izuku's eyes widened at this before quickly finding themselves fascinated with the floor. On top of everything else he'd learned, this might well be one of the worst days of his life. And he couldn't explain himself without revealing rather sensitive secrets. He wanted to. He really, really wanted to. But he had to keep his promise.

"You already know about my father, Endeavor. And I know you're aware he's number two on the Big Four. So... if you have a connection to All Might somehow, then that just means that I have more incentive to beat you. Or, at least, that's what my dad would want."

Huh?

"I'm about to tell you this in strict confidence. Don't tell anyone else. Not even Yang or Bakugo. Got it?"

Izuku nodded nervously as the half and half leader began. "Endeavor aims for the top, and has tried to get there in numerous ways. His power is simple in concept but incredibly destructive and flashy in use. He managed to make a name for himself pretty quickly. Especially when the Faunus War was still in gear. But he never gained the popularity that All Might possesses. He's got it in his head that the guy is living proof of his failure. He's still trying to take him down."

"Wait, I'm still kinda lost. What are you trying to say?" Izuku asked with concern.

"Have you ever heard of... fusion marriages?"

 _That_ caught Izuku by surprise. He knew exactly what they were, much to his dismay. They were incredibly unethical, a way to see if semblances could combine into a stronger, more potent one. They were popular in Atlas, back when they were establishing a foothold in world politics, and it was not a very steady one. Hell, those types of marriages were one of the main causes of the Great War, and for some Oum forsaken reason, _they were still legal in Atlas._

"He bought off my mom's parents to get his hands on her semblance and essentially banned her from hunter's work. And she hated it. After years of trying, they finally had me. The whole reason I was born and trained the way I was... was to usurp All Might."

Izuku, not for the first time that day, found himself at a loss for words. How much had he been through? How much did he not know about?

"He gave me Muspelheim, ya know. As an attempt to get me to use my powers. Heh. The only reason I still even keep that sword around is to have the satisfaction of never drawing it. It's one of the only ways I can really get back at him. I hate him so much. That man isn't even worth being called human. I will not be used as a tool in his game. Not again."

"… again?"

"That's right, you don't know." Shoto rubbed his face with the ball of his hand, saying, "Momo and I were... well, we're engaged."

"Wait, seriously?!"

"It was entirely out of our hands! We were only ten," Shoto explained tiredly. "Neither of us liked it. But we spent a lot of time together, and I guess things just kinda happened from there. It wasn't the greatest way to meet someone, but I don't think we ever would've met otherwise. I just... I wish my mom could meet her."

"Yeah, you've... never really talked about her before. Did something happen?"

Shoto simply sighed. "They're mostly painful memories. No matter how hard I try, I just... I only seem to ever see her crying. One day, she just couldn't take it anymore. Mom... called my left side unbearable," he brought his hand over his left eye, as if the pain had seeped through the memory and almost became real again, "before she... poured boiling water on my face."

Now Izuku was just horrified. How, in the name of all that was good on the face of Remnant, was Shoto still sane after all he'd gone through? And why did he feel as though he couldn't do anything to help with his friend's pain?

"I won't drop out of this fight. I need to show that bastard that I can beat you without using his damn power," Shoto then dropped his hand from his face as he continued with the harshest glare he'd ever seen him give, "So you see. I'll show him that I reject him and his power. That I can be the best without it."

Izuku... didn't have a place to speak. Sure, he knew about Shoto's past now, but there was no way that he could really understand unless he experienced it for himself. It would be like trying to explain color to a blind person: you needed to experience it to understand what it was like. He hadn't. Yes, he'd been bullied, and chastised, and told that he was nothing all his life before All Might, but he would never truly understand the mental hell that Shoto had to endure before Beacon. It sounded absolutely terrifying.

"You're obviously connected to All Might somehow, even if you won't admit it. But... I don't want to fight you like this. Not just to prove a point."

"What? But... isn't sticking it to your dad important-"

"There are plenty of opponents here who can match the both of us in terms of power. I can just beat them. But you're like a little brother to me, Izuku. And I don't want to hurt you. So please, just this once...

"… withdraw from the match."

Silence permeated in the room for several, seemingly endless moments as the shock of what he just asked sunk in. Withdraw? It... certainly _seemed_ tempting. And considering everything Shoto was capable of, anyone else would be in their right mind to take that offer. The guy outclassed him in almost every regard. Sword Skills? Outclassed. Firepower? Unless he used 100%, which _would_ break his body; Outclassed. Dust Skill? Completely. And utterly. Out. Classed. The only ways that he could even hope to compete with him were his battle tactics and his speed. In all other categories, he couldn't hope to match even half of what Shoto was capable of. But...

"I won't force you to do anything. If you really want to fight me, it's your choice," Shoto said as he stood from the wall and walked to the door, briefly stopping to say over his shoulder, "Just know that if you do decide to face me... I can't afford to hold anything back. I'll win this tournament with only my right hand. You can be damn sure of that, if nothing else," as he left the room with the door clicking softly behind him.

 _Damn. So that's what he's been dealing with. He's almost like a comic book character, tragic backstory and everything. It's hard not to admire him for coming this far and still have the will to keep moving forward._

 _But..._

Izuku stood and followed Shoto out of the room, quickly managing to find him walking down the hallway as he yelled after him, "Hey, wait!"

Shoto stopped mid-stride and glanced back at his partner. "I'm only here because someone chose to help me along the way. I've been really lucky. And the fact is, I've had even more help since I came to Beacon. From you, Ruby, Yang, Jaune, Tenya: all of you."

 ** _"Fear not, you are safe. Now that I am here!"_**

 _"You've got this, Midoriya! Kick Initiation's ass!"_

 _"I'm proud of you. Remember that, okay?"_

 _"There's a time to parry and a time to dodge. Don't be so shaken by a single slip up."_

 _"You can't be a hunter if you've only got one trick up your sleeve."_

 _"Arms up! And get ready to spin that scythe of yours like there's no tomorrow!"_

 _"Alright Greenie! That was a damn nice hit, but don't get cocky!"_

 _"Remember, you can tell me if you need help, okay?"_

 _"Just get me to the roof. I'll take care of the rest."_

 _"Why don't you throw a full power smash at me?"_

 _"DON'T EXPECT ME TO HOLD BACK, DEKU!"_

 _"Young man, you too can become a huntsman."_

Izuku felt his fist clench as he remembered. They all helped him get this far. He couldn't let them down. He _wouldn't_ let them down.

"All Might is the kind of person I want to become. I want to inspire hope in others like he did for me. I know my reasons might seem stupid or even childish compared to yours. But I can't lose this either. I owe it to everybody to at least try. Thanks for the offer, but I'll decline. I'm aiming for the top too, you know. And if this is what it takes..."

"I _will_ beat you."

Shoto held Izuku's gaze for a few more silent moments, giving no ground a gaining none himself. In this moment, on this battlefield, they were true equals.

Then Shoto turned and continued to walk down the hallway as Izuku, after a few seconds of silent staring at his leader's back, turned back and went into their dorm room, now with something to focus on other than the secrets he and Pyrrha had learned.

But little did he know that as Shoto turned and walked the halls once more, he couldn't help but smile to himself. Fearless and stubborn till the end. If there was one thing he could admire about Midoriya, it was certainly his sheer willpower.

And neither of them noticed a red headed amazon at the opposite end of the hallway just around the corner, having retreated after accidentally eavesdropping when she meant to talk things out with Izuku. She'd heard everything. And what she'd heard worried her greatly. She didn't know what to do.

 _(meanwhile, somewhere in Vale, general POV)_

"Hey! You alright, Minty?" The ashen blonde direwolf asked his twin tail wearing friend, who had briefly begun to stare off into space for some unknown reason. She quickly responded with, _"Aww, is Bakugo worried about little old me?"_

Bakugo felt a bit of embarrassment as he brushed her comment off, "No, but you said that you needed to talk to me about something. Well? What is it?"

The disguised Neo visibly huffed, seeing as her fun had ended way too soon for her liking and she still had no idea how she was going to warn her friend about the Fall without giving herself away.

 _You know what, fuck proper planning, I'll just wing it._

Neo the pulled out her scroll and began to type at a feverishly fast pace, sometimes having to stop in order to edit a few things in a way that wouldn't mention the people she worked with or for in proper context. When she finally managed to finish it and show what she wrote to Bakugo, it read, _"It's a pretty long story, so I'll give you the short version. My uncle and I came here a couple of years ago in order to avoid some bad stuff from Mistral. We still have a couple contacts over there, and I heard through the grapevine that something bad might happen... well, somewhere in the world. We tried to get more info, but then they just kinda disappeared. And now that Torchwick's been captured, Vale's crime rate is just gone. No robberies, no Fang raids, the League hasn't attempted anything in almost two months; everything's gone silent. That's not natural. Sure, the guy might've controlled the majority of the crime in Vale, but I don't think he controlled all of it. But what's been worrying me lately is the fact that there's been a lot of chatter about something that'll happen at Beacon. I don't know what it is, but it's something bad. So just be careful, alright? I don't want you dying on me if it's as bad as it sounds. If not, I guess I was just being a worrywart."_

Several awkward, silent seconds passed as Bakugo read through the wall of text she'd written, his ears flattened as his eyes zipped from one corner of the Scroll to the next. When he finally managed to finish, he asked the disguised girl in front of him, "You've got some serious baggage, huh?"

Neo steamed a bit at that, but she calmed down fairly quickly. _"You're not exactly wrong about that."_

"You wanna talk about it?"

 _"No. No, I do not."_

"Oh, come on. I spilled my guts to you, now it's your turn."

 _"That was because you really, really needed to vent. I've got myself under control, thank you for asking."_

Bakugo simply sighed. "Fair enough. So... you've got an uncle?"

That was a topic she could talk about vaguely without giving away too much, so she jumped at the chance to answer it. _"Yep. It's pretty much just been us against the world ever since I was seven. He's a pretty unusual guy, but he's all the family I've got. I just hope I can find him soon."_

"Huh. He sounds like a cool guy."

 _"I'm sensing more pent-up frustration."_

Bakugo sighed heavily at this. "How'd you know, Minty?"

 _"Call it a sixth sense or something. So? Got anything to tell me?"_

"Mom raised me alone, dad died before I was born. End of story."

 _"Oh. Sorry."_

"It's fine. I'm over it."

 _Cleary, you aren't. *Sigh* Guess I'll just leave it alone._

"So... about that other thing... do you know anything else?"

 _"The White Fang might be involved somehow. That's all I've got. I'm sorry it isn't more."_

"It's more than a lot of people would've found out. So... good job. I don't think anyone'll believe me if I tell 'em, but I can at least be ready, just in case. And if they think I'm gonna let anyone die on my watch... well...

"They've got another thing comin.' Only one who gets to do anything close to that is me."

That was all he said as he stood and left the coffee shop, with Neo simply sighing as she thought, _Well, I've done what I can without giving us away. Maybe... maybe it'll be enough._

 _I hope you and your friends survive, Bakugo. I really do. Then we can have a real talk. And then, it'll probably be my turn to spill my guts. I just hope we're still friends when I do._

 _(meanwhile, somewhere overlooking Beacon, Ironwood's POV)_

"I... apologize for what I said earlier, Aizawa. It was out of line. It won't happen again," Ironwood said as sincerely as he could. He really didn't mean to say that, but sometimes these things just slipped out.

"What's done is done, and what's said is said. There's no use being sorry for it now," Aizawa said, though there was some subtle hostility within his tone.

"No, you should know this," Ironwood said as he pulled out his Scroll, swiped through a few things and pressed several keys, and showed the screen to the baggy-eyed teacher. "We have him in maximum security, the same thing we did for the Huntsman Hunter. He won't be going anywhere."

Aizawa could only stare at the screen for several, silent, agonizingly long seconds, looking over the profile that Ironwood was showing him, glaring with intense, nearly unrestrained rage at the name. The name of the person responsible for so much death and destruction, who took pleasure in pain and misery. To whom the sounds of agony were beautiful, symphonic bliss and melodies.

 **Solf. J. Kimblee.**

"I understand that he was... a major reason as to why your team didn't survive. And for that, if nothing else, I personally apologize. I should never have given him the specialist rank. But saying that won't fix that damage that's already been done. Is there... anything you wish to do with him?"

Aizawa took an incredibly shaky breath and let it out at a snail's pace, his mood visibly calming itself as he did so. "If you really want to do me a favor, just make sure that psychopath never sees the light of day ever again."

This response just... confused Ironwood. Why wouldn't he want to take revenge against the man who'd caused him so much pain? It's what he would've done. So why?

"Don't misunderstand me: I'm not forgiving him. I'll never forgive him or anything that he did. All I can really do is... accept what's happened and try to be better."

"That's... an interesting perspective. An oddly hopeful one, too."

"Call it what you will. It's how I've seen the world for a long time now. I can only hope that my students will be so optimistic once they learn how harsh life can be."

Ironwood simply chuckled at that. "Well, if it's any consolation, I think you're a damn fine teacher. Better than me, anyway."

"Thanks."

.

..

…

"… wait, did you seriously just say that?"

"I'm not taking it back because it's true. You are a better teacher than I could ever hope to be, I can admit that much. Also, I know that you don't really like Atlas all that much, but know that if you ever need anything, my door's always open."

 _(meanwhile, somewhere in the student dorms, Izuku's POV)_

"So... that's kinda why I need a place to sleep tonight. Sorry for the inconvenience," Izuku said as he finished his explanation to the blonde brawler in front of him. He didn't tell her about Shoto's past; that was private stuff that he should reveal himself. So, his explanation involved them having a disagreement and what with the fact that they were fighting each other the next day, tensions were pretty high and he wasn't sure they'd both be comfortable being in the same room for a while. It wasn't entirely true, but it wasn't really a lie either.

"It's fine, Greenie. All you had to do was ask," Yang said with a cheeky grin, almost causing Izuku to blush again, though what with everything he'd learned within the past four hours he was able to control himself while those thoughts stewed in the back of his mind. And then he realized...

"Won't it be really awkward though? I mean, your team is all female, and I'm a guy, and I have no idea what conclusion Weiss might come to if I sleep over-" Izuku caught himself before he began rambling again. "Sorry."

"Don't worry, Greenie. I've already got a solution in mind," Yang said as she pulled out her Scroll and dialed somebody, though Izuku wouldn't know who until a few minutes later.

 _(ten minutes later, Team RWBY's dorm room, Izuku's POV)_

"WOOHOO! SLEEPOVER!" Mina said with a fist pump into the air, now wearing dark blue camo styled PJ pants and a black t-shirt with the word 'Pinky' written in the same color. Under her arm was a pink sleeping bag and pillow. She really liked her skin pigment color, didn't she?

"Wow. These rooms have a lot more space than most of the guest dorms. Ribbit!" Tuyu said, now dressed a dark teal shirt and froggy green pajama pants with her own sleeping bag and pillow under her arm.

"Oooooo! Bunk beds! So manly!" Kirishima said, wearing a basic white tank top and black shorts. You already know what he brought with him, and it was in his favorite shades of crimson and dark grey.

"Calm yourself, Kirishima. They're not ours, and we have no reason to use them," Tokoyami said as he placed a calming hand on his teammate's shoulder. He was dressed entirely in black, and what he brought was colored in the same shade. The entirety of Team TAKT was here.

.

..

…

"… Yang..." Weiss began to ask threateningly.

"Iinvitedthemoversothatitwouldn'tbeasawkwardforGreenietosleepinherebecuaseheandShotoarehavingadisagreementandhejustreallyneedsaplacetosleepalright?" Yang sputtered out as quickly as she could. She and the heiress were friends, that much was true, but her friend did still have quite the temper when she got riled up.

Weiss simply sighed and rubbed her forehead as she continued, "Just warn me for things like this, okay? Besides, I've... never really done this before. I mean, Momo would stay over at my place sometimes, but we both had our own rooms-"

"Oh boy, have you been missing out, sister!" Ruby yelled as she crashed into her partner, though they managed to stay upright. "C'mon! I've been waiting for a night like this!"

"W-wait-" But her resistance came too late as her leader dragged her into the bathroom and, if Izuku was predicting this correctly, try to get Weiss into some more standard sleeping attire.

As all this was happening, Izuku was sitting against the far wall of the room in his All Might t-shirt and green flannel pants while Blake sat next to him in her kimono with one of her many books covering the lower part of her face, her eyes darting from corner to corner with only the slightest of blushes dusting her cheeks.

"So... there's gonna be a sleepover..." Izuku really wasn't sure how to talk to Blake. Aside from that one time in the classroom, they'd never actually talked to each other.

"Mm," the cat faunus mumbled as she turned the page of her book, not really paying attention to the ensuing chaos.

The silence between the two only continued until Izuku got curious and leaned over her shoulder to see exactly what she was reading. He read a few of the lines before his face began to heat up and turn almost entirely red. Wow. Blake was certainly into some really, really kinky smut. That's what it was called, right? Smut?

Almost as though she were psychic, her amber orbs flickered over to Izuku's currently blushing face. She then adopted a sudden, evil smile whispering, "What did you see?"

"E-erm... nothing?" The green haired boy asked with hesitation.

"No, I'm asking which lines you read. But seriously, tell no one. Especially not Velvet or Ruby. They're way too innocent for this stuff," Blake answered, this time with her normal neutral look, though her lips did have a slight upturn to them.

Izuku couldn't speak the lines he'd read without blushing even more intensely, so he just pointed to them, allowing Balke to read over them, causing her eyes to briefly widen in realization and say, "O...kaaay... I think I can see why those lines would embarrass you."

"Why was it so detailed..." The freckled boy began to rock back and forth as he remembered the minimal, though _incredibly_ descriptive, part of the page Blake was on.

"Hey, I won't tell anyone about it if you don't."

"Deal."

It was at this point that Ruby and Weiss finally emerged from the bathroom, with the former wearing what she wore in the ballroom before Initiation while her partner wore something that Izuku honestly never thought she'd ever try to wear. A white t-shirt with the Schnee logo emblazoned onto the back of it and light blue sweatpants with her hair hanging free.

"Huh. You clean up pretty well," Mina said with Tsuyu and Kirishima in headlocks while Tokoyami simply nodded along.

"Well, most of the time she just sleeps in a nightgown," Ruby explained as the bathroom clicked closed. Yang was probably taking her turn in there right now.

"Wait, people actually sleep in those?" Kirishima asked, earning himself a bop on the head courtesy of Mina for being overly blunt.

"Surprisingly, yes. They're actually pretty comfortable," Weiss said as she tested her new outfit a bit. "Though I will admit these clothes are a lot more... flexible."

"See? I told you you'd like them!" Ruby cheered.

"Well damn. I owe you five Lien, sis."

Izuku's eyes darted to where Yang's voice came from, then finding himself trying really, really hard not to blush again. She was wearing the same outfit that she had on in the ballroom the night before Initiation, the yellow tank top with her emblem emblazoned onto the stomach with a pair of black short shorts, but it felt different to him now, and in a very good way. She didn't even look all that different, with the exception of the extra muscle she'd put on at Torino's, and she was only giving half of a cheeky grin to Ruby, but-

Izuku shook himself out of those thoughts fairly quick. _No. You're here to get some sleep without making your partner uncomfortable, not flirt with Yang. Get your head on straight._

 _… w-w-wait, did I actually think about flirting with Yang?! What am I, crazy?! She's still way out of my league! I can finally hold an actual conversation with her without blushing every time, and I really like her, but... jeez, why is this so hard?!_

 _… I mean, there was that one time at the dance-_

Izuku never got to continue that thought, as it was at that moment that Tenya burst into the room. Literally, he kicked the door open and yelled as he entered, "WHY DID NO ONE INFORM ME OF THIS SLUMBER PARTY BEFOREHAND?!"

.

..

…

"Dude, this was a private slumber party. You really shouldn't have done that," Sun said as he popped out from behind the spectacled boy with a disappointed look on his face.

"Like you have any room to talk! Besides, I had to! There could be such debaucherous acts committed! Like groping!"

"Okay, first of all, I already apologized for helping Blake avoid you guys. Second, I don't think anyone here is that perverted or stupid."

"Someone could've smuggled in alcohol!"

"Literally none of them are of drinking age yet, and neither are we."

"Or they could play perverse games that-"

"Okay! I think that's enough of that!" Sun quickly covered Tenya's mouth in order to quell the growing wrath of Yang and keep Ruby's mind relatively innocent for as long as they mere mortals could.

"Sun? What are you doing here? Shouldn't you be with your team or something?" Izuku asked the blonde monkey faunus.

"Well, they're mostly beat from training all day. I have you guys to thank for that," Sun said as he finally released Tenya, who surprisingly remained silent, as he gave a playful glare to TAKT, to which Tsuyu responded, "That's their own fault. We had nothing to do with it. Ribbit!"

"Well, either way, you'll need someone to make sure the activities don't get too... perverted. That and I'm a bit interested in them myself," Tenya said as he pushed his glasses back up, catching the glint of the light and suddenly shining to the point that his eyes were no longer visible.

"So, you're just going to leave Mr. McSplodySplode and Shoto by themselves, Spectacles?" Yang asked the blue-haired boy.

"Bakugo heard about this and called over team CVFY out of spite. Trust me when I say we have nothing to worry about."

"But-" Mina began to object.

"Nothing. At all." Tenya said, a demonic aura suddenly darkening the room for several seconds as he gave Mina one of the mightiest glares Izuku had ever seen him give anyone. Even Bakugo hadn't been so unlucky.

"Well, now that that's settled, let's begin!" Tenya said, the odd demonic aura now gone and a smile gracing his face.

 _(meanwhile, Team STIK's dorm room, Bakugo's POV)_

"So... what the hell do we do now?" The ashen blonde asked. He'd never really done this before. Certainly not with people like CVFY. Or Shoto. Well, that guy was kinda off in a corner doing his own thing.

"Well... we could play a few games," Coco offered, dressed in a chocolate brown tank top and black shorts.

"Sure. I've got nothing else to do," Bakugo responded, stretching as he did so. He wore a black tank top and crimson shorts.

"Wait, what kind of games are we playing?" Velvet asked nervously. She wore a long sleeved, brown shirt with a cartoonish gray bunny head emblazoned on the front with a pair of black sweatpants.

"The party/sleepover variety," Fox answered for her with an evil smirk on his face, wearing a rusty orange tank top and black shorts.

Yatsu simply sat in another corner and meditated in his hunter's uniform (for some reason), briefly saying, "Alert me once they start. Someone has to make sure they don't get too perverted."

"Count me out," Shoto said as he continued reading... well, something, Bakugo wasn't close enough to read the cover. But, considering the fact that he was Deku's partner, he was probably studying up for tomorrow's big fight.

"You sure? You'll be missing out," Coco offered, only to have the half and half leader turn even further and somehow place his nose deeper into his book. "Okay then...

"So, which should we start with?"

 _(thirty minutes later, Team RWBY's dorm room, general POV)_

"Alright! By popular vote, the next game will be Seven Minutes in Heaven!" Mina yelled aloud. They'd just finished up a game of Truth or Dare without much really happening (because of Tenya), and before that, there was a game of I Spy that got shut down really quick (again, because of Tenya). Now they were playing the third game that evening and, much like the other two, Izuku had no idea how to play.

Luckily, Mina was all too happy to explain the game. "So, to play, all we have to do is sit in a circle-"

"I feel like a lot of these games involve sitting in a circle," Weiss mumbled under her breath.

"Not all of them do, but the majority do involve something akin to that," Tokoyami admitted.

"I am talking, you two!" Mina regained their attention once more. "All we have to do is sit in a circle and spin something with a pointer. We'd normally use a bottle, but this pencil will have to do." She twirled said object between her fingers as she did so. " We'll spin it twice, and the two people it lands on will go into the closest for- well, the hint's in the name- and after their time is up, they come out. While you're in there, you can do anything or you can do nothing, as long as the other person's okay with it. Hell, you could just talk for a bit, doesn't matter as long as you're both cool with it. Also, what happens in there stays in there. Unless you want to spill your guts. In which case, have a blast, but make sure the other person agrees to spill as well, alright? Alright.

"This good enough for you, Tenya?" Mina turned to the spectacled boy who, after thinking it over, said, "As long as no one is forced into anything overly uncomfortable. So, does everyone consent to the conditions?"

"They seem pretty fair to me," Blake said as Kirishima nodded enthusiastically with Sun doing the same with a bit less energy. Weiss agreed, as did her partner. Tsuyu gave her blunt opinion but agreed to the rules with a characteristic ribbit and Sun just nodded. Tokoyami just nodded solemnly, and Izuku, though still a bit confused, agreed as well.

"Well, alright. Let us begin the game."

Mina placed the pencil in the center of the circle and, after a short bit of buildup, spun it as hard as she possibly could. Somehow, it managed to stay close to the ground, ever so slowly coming to a stop, and pointing directly at... him.

 _O-o-o-okay. C-calm down, Izuku. A-a-as long as you don't get t-too nervous, you'll be fine._

"And Yang will be joining you."

 _… well, I was kinda just asking for this, wasn't I?_

Without a word from either of them, the two stepped into the closet, though not before Tenya was sure to turn the light on, and Mina gave a cheeky wink to the two of them, saying in a singsong voice, "Have fun, you two~" before closing the door, leaving the blonde brawler and the green haired inheritor alone.

"…"

"…"

 _Crap. What do I say? I have no idea how to handle this!_

"So... are you doing okay, Izuku?"

"… huh?" _She... used my actual name._

 _...and now I'm even more nervous than before. Okay, Izuku. Deep breaths. You're just standing around and talking... with a girl you've had a crush on for Oum knows how long and can beat you to a pulp if you piss her off. No pressure._

Izuku quickly came out of his thoughts as the blonde continued, "Before, when you came to me about staying over here, you seemed like you had a lot on your mind. You get this look in your eye when you do. Do you need to talk about it?" Yang said as she sat down against the far wall of the closet.

"Maybe..." Izuku said as he hesitantly sat next to her, though Yang was more than okay with it. "I can't go into specifics, though."

"You don't have to. Take your time. Besides, I kinda wanted to talk to you anyway."

"E-erm, sure! What did you... want to talk about?"

"I feel like I don't say this enough, so... thanks. Thank you for everything. I know, it sounds cheesy and kinda cliché, but thank you. For saving me and my team at Initiation, helping me out with Ruby, finding Blake, and... well, a lot more than I can rightly remember right now. You've never asked for anything in return, despite the fact that you had every right to, and... I really admire that about you, ya know? You remind me of All Might like that. I wish I could be more like you. Not so quick to just running in, guns blazing, and just think about how to approach stuff. And to be nicer to people I might not like. When I... told you and Blake about my mom, you... listened. No assumptions, no sarcastic jabs, no subject changes, you actually listened to me. Not a lot of people have done that for me. So, thank you for that especially. And I... I can tell you're having a hard time. I wanted to help you before you left Torino's, but you needed to handle that on your own, I get that now. But that doesn't mean you can't ask for help."

Izuku then felt something soft cover his hand. He looked down to discover that Yang's right and was covering his left tenderly. He could feel the callouses on her palms from all the work she'd put into her fighting, and judging by the tightness of her grip she was a bit new to talking it out with people, Blake likely being one of the only other times she'd had to something similar; yet despite that her touch was almost enough to make his heart burst out of his chest.

"I guess what I'm trying to ask is... how can I help you?"

Izuku was very, very touched by this. Not a lot of people would help him with something this personal. Toshinori was a good person, and so was Shoto, despite his cold nature, as well as Tenya, Ruby, and almost everyone else he'd met over the past year. They were all well-meaning, though Bakugo was still pending, but he didn't know if he could be this vulnerable around them, with the possible exception of Shoto, as his older sibling figure. He felt like he could trust Yang with anything. In a rare show of impulse, he nearly spilled everything, the Inclined, the Maidens, all of it. But he restrained himself. He didn't want to put her in danger. But he just... he needed to vent. He wasn't angry, not even close, he just needed someone to listen to him rambling for a few minutes, to get these pent-up feelings out and dealt with.

"I've been... really conflicted lately. My old teacher told me some stuff that I never thought was possible. There's so much going on, and I can barely keep up with it all. I'm feeling a lot of pressure, and it's starting to... I'm sorry," he apologized as his eyes began to well up with tears, wiping them away before they could fall. "I'm... scared. More scared than I've ever been in my entire life. I don't know what to do. I don't know what the right choice is. I wish I could tell you. I _want_ to tell you-"

But before he could continue, the blonde brawler brought him into a tight hug. He didn't know why she did, or how she knew what to do, but he was glad that she did. He felt safe, like this. As if he didn't need to worry about anything. But he would. He knew that much.

"You don't need to tell me any of that. You don't need to tell me anything. Not yet. If you need a shoulder to cry on or someone to lean on when times get tough, I'll be here for you. I'll always be here for you. And so will everyone else. We all care about you. Even Bakugo, in his own way. This big old group of ours wouldn't be the same without you in it. And I think it's about time that we started returning the favor."

Izuku felt tears welling up again, and this time, he made no effort to stop them from falling. He buried his face in her shoulder and silently sobbed, letting all his frustrations, his worries, and his problems out in his cries, all without having to put Yang, or anyone else, in danger. For an unknown amount of time, they just stayed there, like that, neither one moving a single inch. Holding each other with the muted sounds of the green haired inheritor's cries.

Eventually, Izuku stopped crying, bringing his head out of the blonde brawler's shoulder and pulling back, rubbing his eyes a bit before opening them again, revealing them to be a bit red from all the tears he'd shed, then saying, "Sorry. I guess it's kinda silly, huh? The crying?"

"Well, you feel better, right?" Izuku gave the blonde a confirmative nod. "Then I guess it's not so silly," Yang said with a satisfied look in her eye.

"… yeah. Thank you." And then another topic came to mind. One that almost made him blush at the thought of it. "Yang?"

"Hm? What's up?"

"Do you remember the dance?"

"Yeah. One of the best nights of my life. ...why do you ask?"

"D-do you... remember... r-r-right before those goons c-came in a-and wrecked everything?"

"What are you... oh... OH! R-RIGHT! THAT!" Yang realized with an awkward stutter, suddenly reaching around and bringing her hair over her shoulder and beginning to gently stroke the golden mane softly. It was a nervous tick that he'd noticed at the beginning of the year, though she didn't often show it.

 _Wait, does that mean she's as nervous as I am?_

This thought managed to convince Izuku to finally muster up all the courage he could (minimal though it was), and began to ask his blonde crush, "S-so-"

And before he could get more than a word in, Mina slammed open the door and yelled, "TIME'S UP!"

This interruption caused the two to immediately jump apart with large blushes on each of their faces, with Izuku mumbling to himself with his hands covering his ears in a bit of a fetal position, with Yang responding, "Oh! A-already?"

"… did-"

"Nothing happened!" The two synched.

"Okay, okay, I get it! Well, c'mon out of there. Me and Kirishima are going in next," Mina said as she jerked her thumb over her shoulder, leaning out of the way as they filed out of the closet, neither having the guts to look at the other for most of the night.

 _(thirty minutes later, Yang's POV)_

 _C'mon Yang, just don't think about it! You need to focus- and I'm thinking about it again. Okay, breathe... and don't think about anything._ the blonde brawler thought to herself as everyone began to settle down and doze off. They finally managed to get Weiss to sleep on the floor, much to the platinum-haired girl's dismay, and they were sleeping in groups according to their teams. TAKT was huddled up in one part of the room, where Kirishima and Ashido were sleeping way too close to each other to still be considered 'just friends' any longer, and Tenya was currently snoozing off in a corner with an optimal view of the room. He'd tried to stay up and keep an eye on everyone until they went to sleep, but he couldn't stay up long enough and dozed off himself. Sun was splayed out on the floor with a blanket draped over him, curtesy of Blake, who was now sleeping beside to him tucked into her own little ball in the cutest way possible. Yang was betting about five lien with her little sister that Blake and Sun were gonna be in each other's arms by the morning. Not intentionally, Sun just seemed like a restless sleeper and Blake wasn't. Ruby was sleeping with Crescent Rose cradled in her arms like a teddy bear, mumbling about mods and destructive capabilities all the while.

As for the blonde brawler, she was near Izuku, the green haired boy lying about two or so feet from her, and they were currently the only other two people awake in the room. She could tell because he was mumbling incredibly softly to himself, to the point that she almost thought she was imagining it. But he was. She didn't know what it was about, but she did feel the need to see if he was alright.

A light tap on the shoulder alerted him to her presence, almost immediately silencing him as he slowly turned onto his side to face her, though his eyes didn't meet hers at first and busied themselves with analyzing the carpet textures.

"What were you mumbling about?" She asked as quietly as she could.

Izuku didn't respond at first, though he eventually answered, "N-nothing important."

And the awkward silence just came rolling back in as they stayed stock still.

.

..

…

"… so-"

"I'm sorry."

 _… what? Why's he apologizing... actually, this is totally something he would do even though he doesn't have to. Oum, why is it so freaking cute?!_

Yang shook herself from those thoughts as the green haired boy continued, "W-what I asked in the c-c-closet. I sh-shouldn't have done that. I wasn't ready for it, you weren't ready for it, and I think I just messed everything up and I'm sorry, you don't deserve that kind of pressure and... urgh," Izuku began to apologize over and over again, thinking the worst when Yang managed to snap him out of it.

"Hey," she said as she put a hand on his cheek. "You didn't do anything wrong. You just asked a question. But... we've both got a lot to deal with right now. You especially. And I know that you don't need that kind of pressure on top of what you're already handling."

Izuku looked surprised. Surprised... and also relieved. He didn't hurt her. She was just fine. Thank Oum.

"B-but... Oum, this is even more awkward to say," Izuku buried his face into his hands with embarrassment. Yang could've sworn she saw a bit of red bleed through them. How was this possible? She had no godly idea, and neither do I.

"Go ahead. I'm listening."

"… shouldn't we talk about this, though?"

"Yeah. We should. And we will. But not tonight. You're up against Shoto tomorrow, and I know he's probably at least as strong as Pyrrha, if not even stronger than he already lets on. So... this stuff with me and everything else you have going on? Try not to think about it. Not yet. It can be tough sometimes, but this fight is more important right now.

"So get some sleep so you can kick ass tomorrow," Yang finished with a cheeky smile, removing her hand from Izuku's cheek. "Sorry, that was kinda cheesy, wasn't it?"

"N-no, it wasn't. I-I kinda liked it."

"Heh. To each their own, Greenie. Goodnight." They both settled into their respective sleeping bags, Yang dosing off with a subconscious smile on her face.

Those were the last words between the two spoken, at least for that night. Eventually, they'd talk. About everything. But not tonight.

 **A/N: You're free to rage at me in the reviews about 'romance blue-balling' you or something to that effect! I know, the buildup to relationships in these kinds of things can be unbearable sometimes, and I'm hoping that you aren't too mad about it. But it _will _ happen eventually. It won't be at the end of the story, I'd never do that to you guys, but certainly not this close to the beginning either. It's on the semi-distant horizon, but we aren't quite there yet. Onwards, shippers!**

 **Also, if you do have any ships for this story, let me know! They might or might not have any bearing on what I've got planned, depending on the characters, but I'm open to rethinking some stuff as well as some pairs for this story besides Mighty Dragon into the spotlight. Yup. This ship officially has a name now. And it will happen. No. Matter. What.**

 **Next Chapter: July 1st**

 **Seeya in the next one!**


	34. Morning Tensions

**A/N: So... this isn't the Izuku vs Shoto fight... god, this is awkward.**

 **I know, I know, you guys are really looking forward to it, but there's still some more buildup that I want to do for it. With that said, thank you guys for being patient, and I hope you all enjoy the chapter!**

 **Review Responses:**

 **Wayward Son: Yeah man, I get where you're coming from. I was literally crying by the end of Volume 3. But, as a writer, I respect their decision to do what they did. It takes a lot to kill off any kind of character, especially ones that were as enjoyable as those three.**

 **Those are some great suggestions, and they've actually got me rethinking some context for certain scenes. So thank you! You're awesome!**

 **dekuuuuuuuuuu: I can see why that'd be. You're not wrong, especially towards the beginning. I'm not gonna tell you that because it'd be spoilers.**

 **Disclaimer: I do not own RWBY or My Hero Academia. They belong to Monty Oum, Kohei Horikoshi, and their respective publishing companies. Please support the official releases.**

 **I do not own the cover image**

Chapter 34: Morning Tensions

Momo was not a morning person. She hated them with a passion. Especially ones like this. It was all cloudy outside, like it usually was during autumn in Atlas, and the early snow was starting to set in. And this was one of the warmer days they were likely to experience for a pretty long while. Damn geography.

Still, for once, she beat her alarm clock to the punch (quite literally, she'd smashed it more than a few times), and woken up just as the sun began to peak over the distant horizon. She now wore a white t-shirt with red lining with the word 'CREATY' emblazoned across the front in yellow and a pair of pink short shorts. She wore her hair the way she'd usually worn it for the past few years: a spiky ponytail with a few bangs coming across the right side of her face. It felt good to just be casual for once. She had no one to impress, at the moment.

 _ **Though I'm fairly sure you'd impress Shoto no matter what you wore.**_

 _Sh-shut up!_

"Master Momo?" She heard from her bedroom door in the same crackly voice she'd grown so used to hearing in the morning.

"You can come in Walter. I'm dressed," Momo assured the butler, the door to her ornate and rather lavishly decorated room opening to reveal her longtime companion and friend since the time she'd turned eight: Walter C. Dornez. The man was rather old, about sixty-nine or so if her memory served her well, with visible creases on his forehead and face due to his age. His frame was tall and rather lanky, wearing long black dress pants with pointy-toed, freshly shined leather dress shoes. He also wore a white dress shirt with a neatly done purple tie and a similarly shaded vest. His jet-black hair, one of the only things that hadn't changed with his age, was done in a tight ponytail that reached his mid-back, and his iconic monocle was ever present over his left eye, glinting in the morning sunlight as a few rays managed to peak through the clouds before disappearing once again.

"Good morning, Master Momo. I see that you're already up and about. What's the occasion? If you don't mind my asking," Walter asked.

"You don't need to be so formal around me, Walter."

"But it would be most unbecoming of me to address you in such a casual manner, especially if guests might be around and ready to gossip about everything they hear," he said that with the same, cocky smirk she'd often come to associate with his ego inflating.

"Walter, the only people who ever come here are Weiss, those spokespeople who try far too hard to get into my family's pockets, those tutors my father has to keep hiring because my mother refuses to listen, and my boyfriend," she finished her tangent with a light blush beginning to dust her cheeks.

"And two of those people are the ones we need to be particularly careful around. Especially the haughty, egotistical fools with no place to speak or speculate about affairs so foreign to them." And the smile only further widened.

"Well, I don't think anyone's quite that foolish," Momo said optimistically, despite knowing what it was that Walter was implying not so subtly.

"I will do what I must in order to ensure the preservation of the Yaoyorozu family name and dignity, Master Momo. I owe you all at least that much. Not many would hire someone without color in their name. Now then, I do believe that breakfast is long overdue. Can't go watching this tournament on an empty stomach!"

 _(meanwhile, somewhere in Mistral, Mei's POV)_

"Thanks for cooking, boss!" Mei thanked Maijima as they sat in the middle of their new home with various building materials and half-finished mini projects scattered around in no particular pattern or organization.

"No need. We both know what would've happened if you got behind the grill," his helmet visibly sweatdropped as he said this, referring to the one and only time Mei had ever tried to cook. Her range of talents did not coincide with any kind of preparation of food.

"L-let's not dwell on that. It's Izuku's match today!"

"Yes, it is."

"Do you think he'll win? He'd better. Otherwise he'd make my creations look bad!" Mei yelled enthusiastically before downing her water in three gulps.

"He might. But up against a kid like that, I don't think it's likely."

"… seriously? I thought you'd be a bit more supportive of his chances than that."

"Don't get me wrong, I do want him to win. But I know that someone like Shoto Todoroki isn't going to go down easy. And when you factor in the fact that his dad's one of the top huntsmen, I don't think it's a stretch to say that he's got a lot of advantages over Izuku."

"Well... damn, you've got me there. Does he have anything over Shoto?"

 _(meanwhile, Beacon dining hall, Bakugo's POV)_

"Three things. First off, he's way faster when he uses that Full Cowl thing. Almost as fast as Four Eyes," the blonde direwolf explained to CVFY as they ate breakfast across from each other.

"Well, speed can get you the upper hand sometimes, but it isn't the way to win a fight unless you want an endurance match. I'm not sure who's got more stamina if it comes down to it," Coco thought aloud.

"I think they're tied in that department. They never got ahead of each other when we were putting together the building," Fox commented.

"That's one thing. Deku's also got that fucking library in his brain," Bakugo took a large bite out of his waffle as he said that.

"He has a library in his brain?" Yatsu asked, a confused look crossing his features.

"It's a metaphor, Yatsu," Velvet quickly explained.

"Point is, he's smart. Really, really fucking smart. If he put half as much time into his schoolwork as he did his training, he'd probably be tied with Ice Queen for first place in academics. He's got notes on everyone, even me. If anyone can make a strategy to beat Shoto, it'd be either him or me."

"Why you? You don't exactly seem to be the strategizing type. No offense," Coco stated.

"Taken. I'm a lot of things, hot chocolate, but one thing I'm definitely not is stupid," Bakugo inhaled the rest of his waffle, a loud gulp punctuating the action.

"But what's the third?" Velvet asked.

"He's got the element of surprise. I've only seen him use the full extent of his power a few times, but those few times were when he was desperate and couldn't find another solution. It's like a last resort. Not a lot of people remember this now, but certain semblances can be a lot like physical abilities. Actually, most of my team has semblances like that. Deku's got a cap on his strength, and if Four Eyes runs too fast he can strain his leg muscles. I'm willing to bet that Shoto's got some weakness like that too," Bakugo looked down at his hands, remembering the damage they'd received when he blew that Nomu to Kingdom Come. _We've all got limitations to deal with. No matter how annoying or pointless they might be to deal with._

"Is that seriously all he's got?" Coco asked with genuine concern in her eyes.

"I wouldn't be telling you all this shit if I wasn't sure." Bakugo stood with his now cleaned tray in hand. "C'mon. We've got places to be, and I've got Four Eyes to find and not kill."

 _(meanwhile, undisclosed location in Vale, Neo's POV)_

 _ **"Watch this match closely, Tomura. It will be an important one."**_ All for One said through the currently blank screen. Tomura, Kurogiri, Mr. Compress and Neo were currently sitting at the bar with the overhead TV on at blaring, waiting for the match to finally begin.

"Understood, sir," Compress said as he crossed his legs and observed the screen with anticipation. Or at least it seemed to be that, Neo could never tell, since the guy always had a mask of some kind on his face.

Tomura simply grunted at that, only focusing on the screen in front of him with abject determination and what looked to be a vengeful look in his eye. Kurogiri watched over him with a bit of concern and what looked to be caution.

As for Neo, she was sitting on a bar stool that was a bit too tall for her, allowing her to swing her legs back and forth and eating ice cream out of the bowl placed in front of her like the kid she looked to be. Seriously, she was nineteen and still looked like she was either sixteen or younger, and it was getting really fucking annoying.

 _Then again, the look is pretty useful, sometimes._

Then, almost out of nowhere, Himiko jumped onto the stool next to her, asking with her signature sing song voice, "Whatcha doooooin'?"

Neo quickly typed out a response to her half faunus friend, _"Waiting for this round to start. The ones fighting are on the same team, and so far they've made a pretty good battle duo. It'll be interesting to see which one actually wins."_

"Wait, I know them! Who are they?" Twice asked with genuine confusion. Himiko, though she did no voice it, was asking the same question as the constantly masked man.

 _"Alright, but don't ask questions once the actual fight starts. The first one's..."_

 _(meanwhile, White Fang Vale HQ, Ilia's POV)_

"Tomorrow morning, you will go with Yuma and Trifa to Menagerie and assist Brother Corsac and Fennec with their assignment. It will take you a while to arrive there, so while you're traveling, remember to be discreet. Especially around Menagerie. Am I clear?"

"Crystal, sir!" Ilia responded almost robotically, giving Adam a salute in almost the same way. She nearly sighed in relief as she was dismissed, and it took almost everything for her to not start an all-out sprint before she was out of the bull faunus' field of view.

However, as soon as she could, she rushed down the hall with excitement finally returning to her eyes. The next match was going to start soon, and she didn't want to miss a single second of it!

It was in this haste that she accidentally bumped into Yuma, causing her to stumble a bit before the aforementioned bat faunus caught her by the arm, saying, "Watch yourself, Rainbow. We really don't need you getting a concussion right now."

"Sorry," Ilia dusted herself off as she apologized. "Just kinda in a hurry."

"For what?"

"… promise you won't tell Adam?"

"… he'll actually kill you if he finds out, ya know."

"But I've always loved the festival! It's just so heart pounding and awesome!" Ilia gave a few enthusiastic jabs at this with a large, unfiltered grin on her face.

"I didn't think you were even that into competition," Yuma admitted.

"Hey, just cause I'm a girl doesn't mean I can't get excited for something like this."

"… what? No, this had nothing to do with that, it literally seems like the last thing you'd enjoy. You wanna like it, go right ahead. Just... don't let things like this cloud your judgement, alright?" Yuma held his hands up in a gesture of surrender as he asked.

"… I won't. Now, if you'll excuse me-" the chameleon faunus then turned and continued running down the dimly lit hallway with excitement boiling ever higher in her stomach. But something else was there too. Something she couldn't quite identify.

 _It's a shame we'll have to assault Vale during a time like this. I'd honestly do at any other time of the year, just... not now. If I could change the day we went through with the attack..._

 _… I'd do it. In a heartbeat._

 _(about fifteen minutes later, Amity Coliseum, Izuku's POV)_

 _Alright. This is it. It's all or nothing, now,_ Izuku thought to himself, preparing for the battle ahead as he slipped his blazer over his shoulders. He then lifted his Cirrus and Stratus onto the bench in front of him individually, strapping them on as he continued his train of thought. _He probably won't be willing to talk once the match starts, so the only way to actually get him to listen would be the fight itself._

He slung Tempest over his shoulder, still in its base bastard sword form as it hummed a suggestion of its own. It might be risky, but it could win them the match.

"No. We've only used the move once before, and it's not even finished yet," Izuku whispered to the weapon.

He then opened the door to the locker room he was in to find Pyrrha standing outside, suddenly startling her as she stuttered, "O-oh! Um... h-h-hi!"

"… hey. What are you doing here?" Izuku asked politely.

"Oh, I was just... wondering if you... wanted to talk about what we learned the other day?" She managed to blurt out the last part all at once, as if the red headed amazon had been holding it for a while. But...

"We will. Later. Right now, I need to focus," Izuku said.

"Oh... sorry."

"You don't need to apologize for wanting answers. Truth be told, this has me pretty confused too," Izuku admitted sheepishly as he scratched the back of his head.

"Okay. I suppose you'd better get going," Pyrrha sad as she stepped away from the doorway, allowing the green haired boy to proceed down the hall and towards the arena.

A few seconds of silence passed before Pyrrha called after him, "Izuku!"

He stopped midstride and turned back, wondering what she was going to say. After a moment of hesitant silence, Pyrrha steeled herself, put a smile on her face and said, "Good luck out there."

Izuku smiled back. "Thanks. I think I'll need it." He then turned and walked down the grey hall once more, leaving a confused but resolute Pyrrha in his wake.

 _(meanwhile, Amity Coliseum, Shoto's POV)_

 _Breathe_. Shoto thought to himself as he strapped on Jotunheim and Muspelheim. He struggled a bit with the latter. He always did. But he had to. He wouldn't use it. He wouldn't. _Just breathe. Let's get this over with._

 _(meanwhile, Amity Coliseum, Ruby's POV)_

"Oh my Oum, this is so exciting! I wonder who's gonna win! Augh! I'm dying with anticipation!" Ruby hollered while munching on a bag of cookies she'd just purchased. It was fairly large too, and she wasn't sure it would last her through the entire match. "Who are you guys rooting for?"

"Greenie, duh. He's got a lot of spirit and plenty of ways to kick ass!" Yang said with an enthusiastic jab.

 _That and I'm pretty sure you've got a crush on the guy._

"Well, I don't mean to be a downer, but Shoto's most likely going to win," Weiss said with an entirely factual tone.

"Why's that?" Ruby asked her platinum haired partner, Yang leaning over her shoulder to silently ask the same question. Blake inclined her head towards he conversation, saying, "Yeah. I'm curious about this as well."

"Don't get me wrong, Midoriya's a good guy, and one of the best fighters we know, but... well, compared to Shoto, he's simply outmatched in too many categories. Not to mention some of the rumors from back in Atlas... I don't even know if any of them are true, but if they are, then Shoto's not going to hold anything back, not for a fight like this. He's got too much to prove," Weiss explained, seeming to understand Shoto's current position.

"Damn. Now I don't know who to root for," Blake said as she rubbed her forehead.

"Well, I'm gonna cheer them both on!" Ruby said. "They both need it!"

"Rubes, that's like trying to have a cake and eat it too," Yang pointed out.

"… I don't get it."

 _(meanwhile, undisclosed location in Atlas, Kimblee's POV)_

"Hey, newbie? Today's the festival, right?" Asked the currently bored out of his gourd psychopathic mass murderer.

"Shut it, Level 1," was the response, as it had been for the past... damn, was he actually losing track of time now? That was unusual.

"So, what day is it, newbie?" Kimblee said as he straightened his long black hair, which was now done up in a pony tail that reached his mid back.

"I said-"

"Enough. It's better if you just tell him. It's the only thing that shuts him up," a much older and far more experienced guard said. He then answered Kimblee's question, "It's almost September, Kimblee. No exacts, as usual."

"Ah. So the Vytal Festival's happening around now, right?" The man stretched around in his tattered, though still relatively clean, white prison garb that he'd worn for the past few years. Man, time sure flew on by when you had nothing to do.

There was no response from outside the cell. That was normal as well. But the fact that they didn't answer also said a lot. It was pretty common for the festival to take place around this time of year, so it didn't take a genius to connect the dots.

"I wonder if any of them are particularly interesting?" He wondered aloud before tapping a pressure point in his throat, allowing him to take out the very object that had helped land him here in the first place. It held no control over him, his actions back then were all his own, and he certainly didn't regret them, but the object certainly helped him in more ways than one. In his currently manacled right hand, cuffed specifically to be separated from the left, was a crystal. But not of some trinket or bauble the rich folks used to show their worthless wealth: this was a Dust crystal. A thin, crimson shard that hardly fit into his palm, but the power it possessed was practically unrivaled by any! With the exception of All Might and potentially Ozpin, of course. But this crystal: it was the only one of its kind. And how amazing a symphony it could produce. He could still hear the notes!

 _Well, if any of them are intriguing, I'll hopefully see them once I get out of this place._

 _(meanwhile, Amity Coliseum, Izuku's POV)_

The hallway was a lot longer than Izuku remembered it being. Either that or he was taking the long way around. He couldn't really tell at this point. But, if the growing volume of the spectator's voices were any indication, he was definitely getting closer. He could feel a ball of nervousness in his stomach, trying its damnedest to claw its way out, but he kept it down. He had to focus.

And then, just as he began to turn the corner, he saw the flaming, hulking frame of the man known to the world as Endeavor walking near him, causing the freckled inheritor to almost immediately freeze in place. A simple glance from the man filled him even further with dread, seeing cold, lightless blue eyes that were the same shade as Shoto's left. This man might not be as strong as All Might...

… but he was certainly terrifying.

"Ah. You're Shoto's teammate, right?" Endeavor suddenly asked, causing Izuku to snap back to reality and slowly nod his head. "I was looking for you."

"E-e-erm... why are you back here?"

"I saw your power during your fight with the brainwashing guy. It was very impressive. Interesting how you're able to make so much wind pressure from only the flick of your fingers. It almost reminds me of All Might. In fact, when you're not holding back, you're easily as strong as he is."

 _Oh crap!_

"Oh. W-well, I never thought about it that way. E-e-excuse me, but I really should be going," Izuku said as he slipped past the flaming huntsman. Does he know about One for All?...

 _No. If he did, he probably would've said something about it. If there's one person who definitely shouldn't know about this, it's Endeavor._

"Shoto was made to one day surpass All Might. This fight against you will be a good way to see just how much training he has left. So don't even try holding back," the flaming man said as he walked away.

But this caused Izuku to stop for a few moments, gathering himself as he responded, "I'm not All Might. I know we might seem similar, but we're not the same person.

"And that goes for Shoto too," he gave Endeavor a glare over his shoulder, "He might be your son, but he's nothing like you."

The silence that permeated the room after that statement was almost deafening, even as Izuku turned and resumed his walk towards the arena; he could almost feel Endeavor's stare on his back. He didn't know how often Shoto had to deal with a glare like that, but it was certainly terrifying.

But he ignored the feeling and kept walking, eventually coming out to the roaring, adrenaline fueled crowd as they cheered at the top of their lungs, drowning the place with indecipherable noise and excitement. From the opposite gate, he could see Shoto emerging, a tight, almost frost laced grip on Jotunheim with a cold, focused stare in both his eyes. It almost reminded him of-

 _No! He's not his father. Now get ahold of yourself, we need to help him!_

 _"And here it is, folks! The preliminary battle to the one on one finals! Izuku Midoriya! Versus! Shoto Todoroki!"_ Port's voice bellowed over the crowd's volume, though his statemen somehow made them grow even louder than before.

 _"The same rules from the previous round remain in effect, so don't worry about having to learn anything new. That being said, let's begin the countdown!"_ Oobleck said as the timer started.

The two then began to draw their weapons, Tempest now in a Neben stance as Izuku gripped the hilt tightly in both hands, and Jotunheim was now in Shoto's grip, pointed directly at his green haired opponent. This was it. No holding back. This time, they fought for real.

 _"BEGIN!"_

And the two fought a battle that shook nearly everyone who witnessed it.

 **A/N: And that's the last of the setup for the fight! The next chapter is going to be the fight and nothing but the fight, as well as a few spectator POVs here and there to give things some proper context.**

 **Next Chapter: July 8th**

 **Seeya in the next one!**


	35. Origin

**A/N: What's there to say? It's the big fight you've all been waiting for! This is for everyone who's been with this story since the beginning or have just begun to read as I upload this chapter. This is for all of you, and the 90,000 views that this story has gotten since day one. I just... wow. I literally have no words to describe how happy I am. Thank you all so freaking much! If I could hug every last one of you, I totally would! Now, without further ado!**

 **Let the battle begin!**

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 **Guest: I can neither confirm nor deny these questions. You'll just have to wait and see.**

 **Disclaimer: I do not own RWBY or My Hero Academia. They belong to Monty Oum, Kohei Horikoshi, and their respective publishing companies. Please support the official releases.**

 **I do not own the cover image**

Chapter 35: Origin

Shoto was the first to strike, whipping his saber along the ground in a long, upturning slash, using the Dust within Jotunheim in tandem with his semblance, allowing him shoot out a large glacier of ice at speeds the Izuku had only ever seen the half and half leader produce twice, both times when they had battled against Stain.

Izuku, however, was ready for this, swinging Tempest around in a wide, horizontal arc at the rapidly approaching ice, channeling his Aura through the blade as he did so. It stopped the attack just in time, just a few inches from his own frame, a few jagged and sharpened ends barely stopping in front of his torso. With the added assistance of the wind slash, it was blasted apart, his attack taking several shards from Shoto's glacier and blasting the half and half leader backward, though he managed to stab Jotunheim into the ground and make an ice wall behind him before it pushed him off the side of the ring.

 _"Oh! And already we have two magnificent displays of power! What a start, eh Barty?"_

Izuku ignored the conversing teachers, instead giving his full attention to Shoto, who now stood up from his ice wall and slowly began closer, likely wishing to engage in close combat. Jotunheim dragged on the arena floor behind him, creating an unnatural scratching sound with a particular metallic lacing, ice forming along the ground where it touched.

"Let's continue," Shoto said with an unchanged, cold stare in his eye. What just happened was a preface. This was where the fight truly began.

 **(Kimi no Chikara from My Hero Academia)**

Shoto rocketed forward with his ice assisted speed, suddenly taking a quick jab at Izuku's torso with Jotunheim. The attack was so fast that Izuku barely managed to dodge it, and he only had milliseconds to recover as Shoto swept his saber in the direction that he'd dodged to. Their blades met, cracking the air with a metallic **CLANG** and a clash of strength then ensuing.

But Shoto didn't let it come to that, expertly controlling Jotunheim to try and stab at Izuku through the clash, a move which the blazer-wearing inheritor was unable to avoid. It got him in the left shoulder, visibly clashing with his Aura and taking him lower, down into the eighties, while Shoto still sat comfortably in the higher green zone.

Izuku recovered from this quickly, using the leverage that Shoto had given in the moment to move Jotunheim away and, with a carefully placed foot, sweep Shoto's footing out from under him and attempting to bring Tempest down in a heavy overhead strike on his torso. But Shoto reacted quickly, using his right hand to create a rounded curve and slip away from Izuku's blade, now sticking out of where he was only half a second prior. All in all, the fight currently only lasted some twenty measly seconds, and it was nowhere near finished.

Izuku brought Tempest from the ground it struck, this time going on the offensive with sweeps and slashes of varying speeds with green energy crackling off him as his sclera darkened and his pupils began to glow, a sign that Full Cowl was now fully activated. Shoto dodged, redirected, and parried most of these, but this was only a setup for what Izuku was going to do next. The green haired boy used Cirrus to launch himself into the air, simultaneously dodging Shoto's counterattack and rotating himself about eighty degrees, then releasing Tempest from his grip and using his momentum to turn the rest of the way, then kicking outwards with Stratus and launching Tempest towards a now surprised Shoto.

Shoto barley managed to step away from this attack in time, Tempest again burying itself halfway into the arena floor where he stood just-

But Izuku gave him no time to process this, coming at him again with a devastating heavy kick via Stratus that caused his head to visibly snap to the side and take his aura all the way down to the sixties, though Izuku wasn't far behind him with his own staying in the lowest margin of the seventies. But, using the momentum from the kick, through the frost Shoto could feel starting to form on his arm, he made a full rotation and slashed at Izuku once more as he briefly retreated, managing to catch the green haired inheritor unawares and bring his Aura down into the sixties.

Izuku was unphased by the slash, landing with an audible crack to the concrete floor, raising his arm to call Tempest back to his side. Shoto saw this and raced forward, trying to get in a hit while Izuku was still weaponless. He arrived too late, however, Tempest reaching Izuku's grasp and shifting into its second form, blade curving and handle extending to its full length. Mid-transformation, Izuku swept Tempest's handle towards Shoto's head, which he managed to dodge, which was then followed by a cleverly placed upwards slash, taking him down to the forties.

 _Okay, that's enough. This ends now._

Managing to catch himself, Shoto backpedaled away from Izuku's overhead swipe, launching icicle after icicle with Jotunheim as he back further and further away. Izuku advanced ever so slowly, taking the time to counter and shatter them with swings, spins, and slashes of all varieties. And as the final projectile broke into splinters, Shoto swept Jotnheim upwards, making a peak of ice rocket across the ground and towards Izuku, managing to catch his left foot and slowly but surely began to freeze over the boot itself.

 _Crap! What do I do?! I can't move my foot and Tempest is still too long to destroy this properly! ARGH!_

 _YOU KNOW WHAT?! FUCK IT!_

 **(End Song)**

For the first time since almost the beginning of the semester, Izuku felt the energy of One for All's full power course through his left arm, the violet energy burning like a scarcely contained torrent of fire beneath his skin as the green haired boy launched his fist forwards, a blast of wind erupting from the impact and kicking up a large cloud of steam between him and Shoto. Almost every spectator dropped their jaws at this sudden display, which was even greater than before, but they had to cover their eyes from any spare debris that had been swept up in the attack itself.

When Yang was finally able to see again, there was still a cloud of hissing mist hanging over the arena, obscuring both combatants from view. Tenya was looking at the cloud intensely, worried for both his teammates, while Bakugo sat next to him stone-faced, though he did look a bit surprised himself, and everyone else simply looked forward in shock.

The steam began to clear, allowing Izuku to once again come back into full view. His left arm hung at his side, bruised and broken in several places, now limp from the force he'd just exerted. His teeth were visibly clenching in pain as he tried his best to not move his now broken arm, dragging Tempest's scythe form up to balance himself. He glared towards where he knew Shoto was, the mist just barely beginning to fade as the half and half boy finally came into view...

… and was nowhere near the edge.

Instead, behind him was an ice wall, one that was at least twice his own height, with Jotunheim stabbed halfway into the ground in front of him, briefly breathing out a misty breath as he rose, pulling Jotunheim out as he did so. He then said, "This is the most power that you can produce, isn't it? With that arm broken, you're not going to be able to use your scythe properly.

"Still, thanks for dragging it out this long. Look at the old bastard," Shoto glanced upwards, Izuku following his gaze to find a very stoic yet very angry Endeavor standing against a wall near the middle of the arena with his arms crossed and his flames ever burning on his shoulders. "He's furious. I imagine he'll have quite a few choice words for me once this fight is over...

"… I _am_ sorry it had to come to this. But I need to win this tournament." And then, a tremble in his frost-covered right hand. And another. Izuku saw this for barely a moment, but it was more than enough to tell him what he needed to know. _Is he cold? Wait, then that means... okay, I've got one shot at this._

As the gears continued turning in his head, he also saw Shoto brought Jotunheim back into its sheath, the placing his left foot behind him as he lowered his stance, the floor beneath his right side visibly cooling down and beginning to freeze over. He was going to make an all-out attack. He wanted this fight to be over.

In a millisecond, he drew Jotunheim from its sheath, the blue blade becoming only the slightest of flashes as one final, impossibly large glacier flew towards Izuku. This was it the attack that held Shoto's unrestrained strength behind it. The attack that would end the battle.

Or, at least, Shoto thought it would.

 **"I AM NOT DONE!"**

Another blast of wind rocketed out from Izuku, blasting the approaching glacier to shards and dust, this time surprising Shoto to the point that he was pushed back even farther than before, blasting him back to the very edge of the arena before he just managed to make an ice wall behind himself, preventing the half and half leader from completely falling off. As the wind continued to whip and trash around for a few seconds, Izuku could be seen gripping the lower end of his scythe with the blade point forward on the ground, almost holding it in a reverse grip.

 _What the hell?! He shouldn't have been able to make a blast that strong, not in the state he's in!_

A quick, almost too brief glance to the Aura readers atop the stadium walls told him otherwise. Izuku's Aura, which had been in the forties before, was now almost in the lower twenties while his remained at the fifty mark. But this didn't make any sense. Why would he take that kind of a risk? Damage himself that much? What was he trying to prove?

And then, like a whisper, so faint that if he didn't know Izuku uttered the phrase, he'd have sworn he imagined it, he heard these three, chilling words.

 **"You're trembling... Todoroki..."**

Silence fell upon the arena. No one spoke, no one moved, and for a while, Shoto wasn't sure if anyone was remembering how to breathe. Izuku was pissed. Sure, he'd been a bit angry before, even frustrated sometimes, but never had his rage been more prominent than in this exact moment.

 **"It can be easy to forget that sometimes semblances are a lot closer to being physical abilities, especially for people like us. The reason your battles are so short most of the time is that you don't want to balance out the temperature with your left side. And you're still refusing to use it. You're really so desperate to stick it to him that you'd only use half your strength? That's just insulting.**

 **"Listen. Everyone here is giving it their all. To win this tournament. Make their dreams come true.**

 **"And yeah, I know my body's pretty fucked up right now. But the only things you've managed to land on me are scratches!"** The green haired boy clenched his left hand, briefly groaning in pain before he tried something. He focused his Aura towards his left arm, and slowly but surely, a glowing green hue started to coalesce itself around his broken arm, numbing the pain enough for him to move it, at least for the moment. He slid his hand down Tempest's handle, then flipping it upwards and resting it on his right shoulder with the blade pointing skywards. Izuku's left arm was now almost entirely covered with his ethereal emerald Aura, lifting said hand and pointing it directly at Shoto. And then, with frustration in his tone and daring in his gaze, he yelled to his friend, **"So the next time you come at me...**

 **"IT HAD BETTER BE WITH ALL YOU'VE FUCKING GOT!"**

Everyone was left speechless. Again, no one moved, no one spoke, not a sound was made. But Shoto steeled himself to this. He couldn't let himself give in. Not now. No matter how tempting it might've seemed.

Shoto rushed forwards with Jotuheim free of the ground once more, but something was different this time. He felt it, and he knew from Izuku's slightest reaction that Izuku had seen it as well.

"He's gotten slower," Bakugo muttered to himself. Yang glanced down and saw that the observation was incredibly accurate. Shoto's attacks were slower too, his ice being sidestepped by Izuku easily as he got closer. The green haired boy sidestepped his attempt at a stab and kicked at the half and half leader with an echoing blast of buckshot from Stratus, applying a bit more force to the shot than he'd anticipated and sending the two skidding apart once again.

The Aura over Izuku's arm flickered for a moment, causing him to flinch in returning pain. He fought through it though, managing to get close enough to the half and half leader to deliver a devastating punch to his upper torso with his Aura covered hand, pushing through with enough kinetic force to send him flying across the arena, skidding to a halt only ten feet from the edge of the stadium.

The pain, minimized though it may have been, still rebounded throughout his arm, causing the green haired inheritor to cry out before Shoto tried to get in another slashing attack. This was no longer a fight. This was a brutal slog of a bloody brawl, for all the world to see. They were both beaten to hell, and they'd get even worse as things progressed.

"Ozpin, we need to stop this," Goodwitch demanded as they observed the fight from their spectator's box with a worried gaze behind her glasses, with Aizawa to her right and Peach to her left, neither taking their eyes off of the battle in front of them. "I'm not sure Midoriya realizes just how much pain he's putting himself in. Once the adrenaline and his Aura calm down, it's going to hit him like a freight train."

"And I might not be able to heal him in one go. I'm good, but those hits aren't going to be that simple to clean up," Peach said as she shifted her neon orange hair, her eyes only concerned with staying on Izuku and figuring out the best way to put him back together. "Even if he does win, which is still up in the air, he might not be able to fight in the finals. Hell, in the worst case, he could end up with permanent damage."

Ozpin simply stayed silent as he looked on at the fight in front of him, though he was visibly gripping his cane tightly in order to stop himself from rushing down and stopping the fight himself. It took every ounce of willpower he possessed to not do what All Might would've done at that moment.

Aizawa's face remained stoic and calm as he continued to watch the fight progress, Shoto now pushed entirely on the defensive as Izuku attacked wildly, unlike his normally careful and tactful fighting style. He flashed back to a time when he had the green haired inheritor stay after class to discuss better control over his power. It was one of the only times the two had ever really spoken to each other, and the conversation only gave Izuku the conviction to work even harder. And he did.

 _Still, while he's managed to gain some control on a larger power output, it's only just that. It'll be a very long time before he can truly control it._ The disheveled man rubbed some old scars on his arms from a particular mission that went poorly. It hurt like hell. _Man, the fact that he's going through the much pain and still going... that takes a lot of resolve._

 _Just what the hell is driving this kid?_

Back in the arena, Shoto dodged out of the way of a particularly well-placed tripping strike by Tempest, but as soon as he did so, Izuku flipped the blade around and caught Shoto around his back, swapping Tempest's handle to his left hand as he pulled him closer, sending One for All's energy through his right knuckle, managing to deliver a devastating right hook that brought Shoto's Aura down to the thirty mark, while his sat on the cusp of the teens, sending them both apart once again.

"Why? Why the hell are you putting yourself through this much?" Shoto asked, still confused as to the nature of Izuku's pleads and now desperate fighting style.

 **"I want to live up to everyone's expectations of me,"** as he dragged Tempest behind him, the blade's edge scratching across the ground as he broke into a slow run towards Shoto. **"I want to smile while I do something good for them.**

 **"I want to inspire people... the same way that he inspired me!"**

 _Shoto..._

As the half and half leader almost drifted back into his memories, Izuku finally reached him, giving him a hard shoulder ram with his good arm as he continued his yell, **"That's why I'm giving it everything I've got! Just like you ought to be!"** He pointed his Aura covered arm towards Shoto as he yelled this, the latter skidding to a halt as the former again continued, stepping ever closer as he did so, **"There's no way I can truly understand just what you've gone through. Our lives couldn't be more different from each other. But you need to stop screwing around! If you want to defy your dad, fine, I won't stop you. But you don't have the right to call yourself number one if you're not willing to go all out!"**

Something shook within Shoto. And he didn't know why, but mid-battle, he started to remember. Things he wished had never happened. Things he wished he could've changed.

 _"Get up. If you're this weak, you can forget about beating All Might, or even a Creep youngling," Enji said, his facial hair ever glowing as Shoto curled inwards on his stomach on the ground in front of him, his breakfast now spewed on the hardwood floor from the blow he'd received, wheezing all the while._

 _"Please, let him rest! You're pushing him too hard! He's only five years old!" his mother pleaded as she kneeled down to help him up._

 _"He can take it. Now get out of the way!" Enji yelled as he hit Rei across the face, sending her sprawling to the ground._

 _Shoto heard this, finally managing to raise his head and see where his mother had landed. "... momma?"_

"Shut up..." Shoto whispered to himself as frost continued to form on the right side of his body. Again, another flashback began.

 _Shoto and Rei sat together in his room as the former quietly sobbed to the latter, curled up against her torso as he said, "I don't want to. Mom... please, I... I don't want to be the kind of guy he is! I don't want to hurt people or bully them like he does!"_

 _"But honey... you do still want to be a huntsman, right?"_

 _Shoto stopped crying for a moment, then looking up to his mother with tearstained cheeks as she continued, "Never forget. Stay true to yourself and who you are. You can be the kind of hunter you want to be when you're older."_

 **"That's why... I'm going to win this!"** Izuku hooked Tempest's blade across Shoto's torso, spinning and hurling him towards the edge of the arena with some assistance from a wind slash as he continued, **"Even if I have to surpass you!"**

Some of the spots of frost began to peel off, some audibly shattering and cracking in the air, only to be replaced by fresher ones. He was getting too cold. Shoto wouldn't be able to take the temperature imbalance for much longer. Yet that didn't concern him at the moment.

 _"Ignore them, Shoto. They live in a different world than the one I'm training you for," Enji said as he was dragged towards the training hall yet again._

And now he was flying through the air, having bounced off of the arena floor once already. Yet still, the pain barely registered. He knew that his Aura was getting low. He and Izuku were likely around the same spot in the regard. Yet still, the memories came.

 _"I can't do this anymore, mom. The children... they're more like him with every passing day. And Shoto... sometimes that left side of his is... unbearable! All I can see is his father! Please, I need to run away from this place!"_

 _"Mom? What are you saying?"_

 _The hissing from the teapot grew louder and louder, to the point that it was almost deafening. Rei whipped around with a crazed look in her eye. And then the pain. The same, unspeakable pain._

 _I remember..._

 _He stood with his back against a door, with sterile white wrapping across his still stinging left eye. Enji paced across the room, muttering all the while, "Moronic woman. To hurt you at such an important time!"_

 _"... where did momma go?" he asked with a coldness that had never been present before._

 _"Huh? Oh, she hurt my masterpiece, so I put her in a hospital down in Mistral, to keep you safe."_

 _"... that was your fault."_

 _"Huh?"_

 _"You're the one that made her hurt me!"_

 _I will reject you!_

Shoto stood once more, Jotunheim again at his side, thinking still, _I refuse... to use your semblance! I refuse-_

 **"IT'S YOURS! YOUR POWER, NOT HIS!"**

Shoto stood stock still, and fractions of seconds felt like minutes as he flashed back for the final time.

 _ **"Yes, it is true that children often inherit their parent's quirks and sometimes even their semblances, or develop similar powersets. But regardless of that, powers are what you make of them! You decide how you use it! Take this to heart kids! And remember!" **_All Might said as he flashed a thumbs up at the camera, Shoto and his mother watching the TV together as he concluded, _**"You've got it!"**_

 **(You Say Run from My Hero Academia)**

 _Shoto's face lit up as he watched, his mother rubbing his head affectionately as she echoed what she'd said before, "But you... still want to be a huntsman, don't you?"_

 _I hadn't realized... how much I'd forgotten..._

 _"You aren't a prisoner of your blood. You're allowed to use your power in any way you wish. To be anyone you want to be."_

At this realization, the heat began to build in his left side, burning hotter and hotter until finally, it burst, releasing a massive, spiraling torrent of flames as it did so. It was so powerful that Izuku had to catch himself just to keep from being blow away by the sheer force of it, and the audience on all sides was hit once again by the wind that had been kicked up from the release of power.

"He's actually using his fire power?!" Yang yelled in surprise, shielding her eyes from any spare debris that had been kicked up in the chaos. Many of the others had done the same with their own cries of surprise, all with the exceptions of Bakugo and Weiss, either out of some form of excitement or shock. Even Tenya, the most level-headed person on Team STIK, looked as shocked Weiss did.

 _You made him use his father's power._ Toshinori thought to himself as he spectated the match. _You damn fool. You were trying to save Shoto from himself this entire time._

"You damn idiot," Shoto scolded his teammate as his fire started to bend more to his control, the frost visibly melting from his right side in tandem. "Why're you helping me? We're opponents."

Izuku's eyes widened at Shoto's words, the look of mixed awe and surprise staying as the flames unfurled to reveal his partner, who continued his earlier statement, "Now who's screwing around?"

This only caused Izuku to smile, relieved that he'd managed to convince Shoto to accept himself. The two were grinning like idiots, neither really caring about the result of the match any longer.

The same could not be said for Endeavor, who began to holler and shout praise and excitement about Shoto's potential from above, his fire spiking higher as he did so.

And yet, neither combatant acknowledged him. Their focus was squarely on each other. Shoto, still reluctant, shed a single, silent tear. He'd broken his promise, the one he'd kept for over a decade. And yet, at the same time...

 **"Amazing..."** Izuku said in awe, the same smile unmoved from his features.

"Why are you smiling?"

This caused Izuku's grin to suddenly drop, as he remembered where they were and what was soon to be done.

"With those injuries... and in this situation... you really must be crazy," Shoto said as he looked his partner dead on, his focus now regained. Izuku formed up, preparing for the onslaught that the two were soon to unleash upon each other. "Don't blame me for what happens next."

 _Alright. It'll be a lot harder, but I think I can still do the Cyclone Grove with just one arm._

And then, he felt the signature hum of Tempest, causing him to glance down and see the runes along the weapon glow, almost saying 'that won't do' before the handle began to collapse back down to its normal size, the blade unfurling and straightening itself out, forming into a bastard sword once more. Izuku hadn't shifted it. It had done that on its own.

Shoto stepped forward, charging to power within both of his hands with ice crystals sprouting from his right foot while all the while the flaming torrent of his left hand continued to rage on, resting that same hand, for the first time since they'd met, on Muspelheim's hilt.

Izuku too stepped forward, the bright emerald glow within his left arm then extending to his legs and right arm as he gripped Tempest in both hands, visibly ripping his pant legs and sleeves to ribbons from the sheer presence of this much power, taking up his Neben stance once more as Tempest glowed the same shade as his limbs.

And then, without warning, Shoto swung Jotunheim forward with all the might he could possibly imbue the strike with, causing a gargantuan pillar of ice to launch at high speeds towards his green haired opponent. It was the largest he'd made in their battle yet, easily casting the two of them in shadow, causing the flames on his left side to glow ever brighter.

Izuku rushed at the pillar head-on, Tempest becoming a fluid blur as he swung the blade with all the dexterity he could focus with and giving each swing as much might as he could potentially place behind them. He sliced through the pillar bit by bit, chunk by chunk, becoming a humanoid emerald beacon as he managed to burn even brighter, despite the fact that he was most certainly almost out of Aura. He knew that this was it. This would be the end of their match.

And then, with all the courage he could muster, Shoto grasped the hilt of Muspelheim and drew the blade in a single, fluid motion, the flames burning ever brighter and flashing behind him like the fire from jet engines as the blade itself began to glow with power.

Izuku had managed to finally cut his way through the entire pillar, with Shoto there waiting for him. The half and half leader mumbled to himself, "I finally get it, Izuku," as he raised slowly raised Muspelheim ever higher, preparing to strike.

"Thank you."

The resulting light blinded both to the other's attack, and when they finally met, the ensuing destruction blasted the arena to bits and shreds, the ground visibly cracking from the force of the blow as a steamy haze settled over the arena, alerting not a single spectator as to the victor.

 **(End Song)**

The silence around the arena was deafening, even as the steam began to clear. Who won? How badly beaten were they? Were the two combatants even alive? These questions and more raced through the minds of many a spectator as the cloud continued to clear. But the ones who know the two, even Bakugo, and especially Yang and Tenya, were only concerned with whether or not they were alright. And as the steam cleared...

Izuku could be seen against one of the far walls of the arena, shoulders slumped and head limp, despite the vice grip that his right hand still had on Tempest. The glowing effect that had almost consumed his limbs before was gone now, and what remained from that were wavy, almost wind like markings that lined them, though they were particularly intense on his still broken and mangled left arm. He fell to the ground, unconscious, beaten, and most definitely defeated.

As the steam continued to clear away, Shoto was revealed to be standing on the opposite end of the arena with a look of shock on his face, with his jacket and combat vest torn to nothing but scraps. In his hands were the hilts of Jotunheim and Muspelheim, the blades of which, after such grandiose displays of his powers, were shattered into thousands of tiny, irrecoverable pieces. And yet, the result was as clear as day, no matter how much he may have wanted a different result.

 _"Shoto Todoroki has won the match!"_

 **A/N: I hope that this depiction lives up to the sheer spectacle that was the animated version of this fight. It probably doesn't, but hey, I had a lot of fun writing this, and I hope you enjoyed reading it!**

 **Next Chapter: Jun. 22nd**

 **Seeya in the next one!**


	36. Turning Point

**A/N: And now, the aftermath of that epic fight from the last chapter. Enjoy!**

 **Disclaimer: I do not own RWBY or My Hero Academia. They belong to Monty Oum, Kohei Horikoshi, and their respective publishing companies. Please support the official releases.**

 **I do not own the cover image**

Chapter 36: Turning Point

The reaction was almost instantaneous, Shoto rushing to the edge and jumping over it without a care for the potential harm to himself, only concerned about whether or not his friend was alright. The hilts of Jotunheim and Muspelheim lay abandoned on the ground above, something that he was reminded of when he landed, the sheaths briefly giving a hollow clack against the ground.

When he finally got to Izuku, the green haired inheritor's face was scrunched up in pain, and Shoto finally saw just how badly his left arm and right leg had been broken. He kneeled down and used his right side to try and make casts out of what ice he had left, which was thankfully enough to bind both of the limbs. The paramedics arrived soon after, taking Izuku off to Peach's office to properly heal his injuries.

Shoto slowly exited the arena, and as he stared at the ground, the echo of his boots reverberating throughout the hall, _he_ spoke up.

"You did well out there, Shoto. And you've finally accepted your purpose as well. I'll have to step up your training when we go back to Atlas. Releasing that much energy in a single match was rather reckless of you. We can't have that if you're going to take my place. By the time you properly graduate, you'll be able to defeat All Might without breaking a sweat. I will lead you down the path of the mighty, Shoto," Endeavor said, his hulking frame leaning against the wall, his arms crossed and his face having abandoned his normal scowl and settling for an unsettling, unnatural smile. By Oum, it disgusted him to no end.

"I've accepted nothing. You're truly foolish if you think my feelings about this could be undone so easily. I'm not some tool for your ego, not anymore. And when I used my left, for just that short minute... I'd forgotten all about you. I'm still not sure how to feel about this. I don't know if it's good or bad. Maybe..." Shoto said as he glared at his father, not with hostility, but with an uncompromised amount of certainty behind his eyes. "... maybe I just don't need you."

The silence was uncomfortable, and Endeavor, his smile quickly fading, was actually quite shocked. When Shoto began walking down the hallway once again, he didn't even think to stop him.

 _(two hours later, Peach's office, Izuku's POV)_

"You damn idiot," the brightly haired nurse scolded Izuku, who was currently wearing casts on his left arm and right leg, bound tightly and thick. "You're lucky that the damage wasn't more severe than it already is. That was a close Oumdamned call."

"Sorry," Izuku managed to squeeze out, only reawakening just a few minutes prior. The limbs he broke were certainly hurting, as was evidenced by the initial pins and needles esque pain he'd felt when he woke up, but he was alive and not paralyzed. All the little things, he supposed, and what pain was there was already fading. Peach was really, _really_ good at her job.

"So am I. I shouldn't have encouraged you to be this reckless, especially against an opponent like Shoto," Toshinori said with his head bowed in his normal, gangly form.

Peach simply sighed at this, briefly rubbing her forehead with the ball of her hand. "You'd be getting a lot more of a lecture if the old hag was still here instead of me. Especially because of the surgery. You'll be needing those casts for the next couple days so I can properly heal you. You should be able to walk, but I'd recommend using a crutch until tomorrow.

"Also," she pointed to the markings on his limbs, the ones that had appeared after he'd channeled so much Aura, "The scarring might not be as bad as it could've been, but this isn't the kind of thing that you can just walk away from either. Those marks you've got are practically part of your skin now. Let that serve as a reminder of what you do to yourself when you use too much of your own power. And you should know...

"If you ever break your limbs that recklessly ever again, I will not heal you. The method is too self-destructive to be viable in a real fight, especially out in the wilds. You need to commit to Full Cowl if you want any chance at becoming a huntsman."

This was not a recommendation. This was not a suggestion. This wasn't even a bargain. It was an ultimatum. Peach's eyes said it all. They were hard, unmoving. This was a bad, self-destructive habit, and if Izuku didn't break it soon it could have disastrous consequences on his body, or worse, his mental state. He couldn't help anyone if he wasn't able to even stand up straight. It was harsh, but the freckled inheritor also knew that Peach said what she said with the best of intentions. And she wouldn't be around to help him forever. He couldn't keep relying on her.

"Well, now that we've got the depressing stuff out of the way, I think it's time you had some visitors," Peach said as her signature smirk returned to her face, flipping her lab coat onto her shoulders as she exited the room, saying, "Go on in. Only four at a time though. Don't overwhelm him," to people outside the room.

Almost immediately after she said this, and once All Might shifted into his power form before flashing Izuku a brief look of 'good luck' and followed Peach out, a streak of red bolted through the doorframe and straight into Izuku's torso, a pair of dainty arms wrapping themselves tightly around his shoulders. The same rose themed reaper was also causing Izuku a great deal of discomfort, seeing as his casted arm was being pressed uncomfortably against his torso.

"AGH! Ruby! Arm! Arm! Broken!" was all Izuku managed to get out as he grit his teeth together, trying not to cry out in pain.

Almost instantly, Ruby separated herself from her brother figure, giving a bit of a sheepish look before scratching the back of her head, saying "Sorry. I'm just so glad you're alright!"

"As are we," Weiss said as she lead Tenya and Blake into the room. "Those injuries looked fairly painful. I mean, we know that you've gone through this kind of thing before, but still."

"You're not wrong," Izuku admitted with a sheepish look that was actually quite similar to Ruby's. "It did hurt. A lot."

Seriously, how were they not related?!

"While that battle was certainly an exciting one, that was rather foolish of you," Tenya scolded his teammate lightly, though this didn't continue since Peach had done the same just a minute prior. "Still, you fought valiantly. I don't believe I could've lasted for so long against our leader at my peak, let alone with a broken arm."

"Don't sell yourself short, Tenya. You're a great fighter in your own right. You're certainly a lot more accurate than Ruby is with a sniper rifle," Weiss reassured the spectacled boy, playfully scolding her leader in the process.

"I will neither confirm nor deny this! But I'll resent that comment anyway!" Ruby yelled, temporarily going into what looked to be a chibi-esque state with Weiss smirking all the while. How was this possible? It shouldn't have been, but screw logic!

"Is no one else going to ask about those weird marks he's got on his arm?" Blake asked, having looked at those marks on Izuku's only visible limb for a bit and becoming quite curious as to their nature.

"Erm... I don't really know much about them myself. Peach said they're basically a part of my skin now, so I guess they're permanent?" Izuku half asked to himself, still quite confused about it all.

"That is... quite strange," Weiss cupped her chin with her left hand as she looked at the markings on his good arm, obviously theorizing as to what they might be for. Then, she and Tenya both flinched simultaneously, then turning back to Izuku and synching, "'They?' As in multiple?"

"... yeah... on all my limbs."

It was at that moment that Ruby rushed up beside Weiss and began to examine Izuku's arms herself, muttering a "So cool," under her breath as she did so, her eyes filling with an excited light.

"Well, I think we've taken up enough of your time, Izuku. Come on, let's let the others have their turn," Tenya said, beckoning the group to the exit. Though she looked reluctant to do so, Ruby left with the others.

Then, it was Sun who lead in the next group, consisting of Nora, Ren, and Bakugo, the latter of whom held a surprisingly neutral expression in his eye while the former three looked positively giddy to see him. Well, Sun and Nora did, Ren just had his usual, calm smirk.

"Dude, that was a kickass fight! First it was all SHING! BLAM! And then the swords came out and-" Sun was then interrupted by Nora, who yelled, "THAT WAS THE GREATEST THING I'VE EVER SEEN! OH MY OUM, I'M GONNA BE TELLING STORIES ABOUT THIS!"

Sun actually had to cover his ears in order to avoid going deaf from the bubbly girl's sheer volume, as did Izuku and Bakugo especially, almost looking like he was in pain from the sound. When it finally ended, the direwolf's head snapped towards Ren as he asked, "How the fuck have you not gone deaf around this girl?"

"You sorta get used to it after a while," Ren said with the same small smirk on his face, having become so numb to Nora's volume that he didn't even cover his ears.

Sun then seemed to remember something. "Oh! CVFY, TAKT, and the rest of SSSN send their regards. They'd be here themselves, but something came up with Coco's family, Kirishima and Tetsutetsu are going on an arcade crawl to celebrate your fight; the others went to keep them from wrecking everything; and Scarlet's 'hunting' for something or other. Hmm... wait a damn minute! Is he gonna do it again?!"

"You couldn't tell? Sheesh, your gaydar is _way_ off, Gunchucks," Bakugo said in his usual, still rather jaded manner.

"No, I knew he was gay, but that's not the point! He's an incessant flirt! It always either ends with him in detention or the team in detention. And it might be worse than that if I don't find him within the next hour or so," Sun said as he opened the window. "Don't mind me! Just taking a shortcut!"

He then leapt through the window and continued to make his way through Beacon's grounds with all the dexterity and acrobatic proficiency as... well, a monkey.

"... so... that just happened," Nora said, causing everyone else in the room to nod along with her.

Bakugo then turned back to Izuku, then giving his full-toothed, slightly intimidating grin and saying, "Once this festival's over, we've gotta have a rematch. Back at Torino's. Fair and square. Then I'm kicking' Shoto's ass."

For the first time, it seemed like Bakugo was actually being friendly. In his own angry way of course. Izuku was unsure as to how truthful this actually was, but something had changed. Sure, he was still the same grumpy, overly annoyed, ill-tempered, battle-obsessed guy that he'd always been, but he also seemed less hostile than he remembered. Though he was cautious of the implications, Izuku gave his rival a smile and responded, "Yeah. Don't think I'll go easy on you, though."

"Wouldn't have it any other way, Deku!" the ashen blonde yelled over his shoulder as he left the room, followed by Ren with a currently hypered out Nora being dragged behind him. The next ones to come in were a concerned, and now relieved, Yang, a kind smiled Jaune, and an ever so awkward Pyrrha.

"Hey Greenie," Yang said a bit breathlessly. How worried had she been? "How's the arm? Besides, ya know, being broken and all."

"Well, I'm not constantly screaming in pain, so I think it's fine, for now," Izuku said, smiling all the while. Though she did hesitate a little bit, Yang pulled the green haired boy into a tight hug, though this one wasn't nearly as uncomfortable as Ruby's surprise hug. He hugged back, his face now buried into her shoulder as her chin perched itself atop the crown of his head, the silence between the two surprisingly relaxed and rather calming.

...

 _Would it be creepy to say that she smells nice? It probably would. It definitely would. I'm just gonna keep that to myself._

"Ahem!" Jaune loudly cleared his throat, causing the two to slowly loosen their hug and look in his and Pyrrha's direction. With a sheepish look on his face, and scratching the back of his head for emphasis, he said, "Sorry as I am to interrupt this little moment you two are having, we do have a few questions for you."

"Sorry. We really shouldn't be here for this," Pyrrha half bowed her head as she apologized.

Yang sighed, remembering what they'd agreed to ask him outside, and, after giving him a bit of a squeeze around the shoulders, reluctantly let him go and backed up a bit as Jaune began with the questions, pertaining to the marks on his limbs and how he was able to control his Aura to the point that his arms actually glowed. Izuku answered the first question as he did for the first group, with almost the exact same explanation.

"And... well, I actually have no idea how I managed to do that. It was pretty instinctual. And I wouldn't recommend trying it. I could actually feel my own Aura through the adrenaline. It was... fairly intense, to say the least. I probably would've been screaming in pain if I could've actually felt how hurt I was."

The white helmet of Lancelot, for the first time in a very long while, then materialized itself beside his master, saying, _ **"I am relieved to see you well and recovering, Midoriya. And Master Jaune, I'll warn you now, while you might have more Aura than Midoriya does, you'd need a great deal of control in order to even attempt what he was lucky enough to pull off."**_

"Man, that is weird," Yang whispered to herself, not having seen Lancelot's helmet materialize before. It was fairly strange, to be fair.

 _ **"And I wouldn't recommend trying to do something like that again, Midoriya,"**_ the helmet turned as he addressed the currently incapacitated inheritor. _**"At the very least, have a greater control over your power before you attempt... well, what you did was honestly beyond my knowledge."**_

"Well, I also have a question." Pyrrha raised her hand politely as she could. "What was that last attack you used against Shoto? I don't think you've ever used it before."

"It was a bit of an experiment. Do you guys remember that one Omnislash move I did way back when?" Izuku asked back to everyone present, and they all nodded in response. "Well... I kinda used it as a basis for a stronger attack, and it was actually part of what helped me develop Cyclone Grove back when we were at Torino's. I-I don't actually have a name for it, though."

"... maybe Sword Storm?" Jaune suggested.

"Or something epic, like Emerald Dance," Yang said with passionate fire, though this idea was quickly shot down by Jaune.

"W-well, they're both nice names, but I'm not sure which is better," the green-haired inheritor admitted to them.

The two blondes then continued to bicker, playfully, over what the move ought to be called, and the two were finally interrupted by Lancelot, who said, _**"I do believe that Miss Nikos has a recommendation."**_

"Erm... yes! But it's a bit odd," Pyrrha admitted with a bit of an embarrassed red to her face.

"Don't worry about it. Mine wasn't exactly grade-A quality," Jaune reassured her.

"Yeah. No matter what it is, it can't be any worse than ours," the blonde brawler said, playfully giving Pyrrha's shoulder a light tap with her non-dominant knuckle. With that encouragement, Pyrrha raised her head and said, "I was thinking... since your other move was called 'Cyclone Grove,' but it was in scythe form, and this one was made in blade form... maybe this one could be called... Cyclone Blade?"

.

..

…

"... it's perfect..." all three of them somehow managed to synch, causing Pyrrha to suddenly flinch at the strangeness of it all.

"R-r-really?"

"Oh, hell yeah! Why didn't I think of that? It's just so good!" Yang exclaimed with a gigantic grin on her face.

"It's also pretty appropriate. It's basically Izuku's second strongest technique, so having the Cyclone in the name is actually a pretty good way of keeping track of just how powerful it is." Jaune said, cupping his hand under his chin as he continued, "There's actually no better name for it."

"Yeah. I mean, the others weren't bad, but that's definitely the one I'm going with," Izuku said as he gained a similar grin to Yang's.

"You see? Have a bit more confidence in your social skills. I promise, you'll be fine," Lancelot said before he turned to Jaune, saying, "Well, I do believe that's about all the time we have, for now. Come. We have to prepare for tomorrow."

The blonde knight sighed as Lancelot's helmet dissipated, knowing that he was indeed correct. "Well, I guess that's our cue. C'mon."

Pyrrha followed her leader out of the room, giving Izuku a small wave as they left, the door still open behind them. He and Yang were the only two left in the room now.

"Well... I hope you get better soon, Izuku. And please don't go worrying us like that again, okay? Seriously, I was scared you had permanent damage." Yang had a serious look in her eye as she said that. She wasn't joking around: she'd actually been worried.

"I won't. Sorry for worrying you," Izuku said with a bit of shame in his voice, his gaze trailing down to the sheets that covered his lower body and his currently casted right leg. After a second of silence, he felt a firm yet gentle hand gripping his shoulder and something soft pressing itself against the side of his forehead. Something very, very soft.

And then, as quickly as he'd felt it, the pleasant pressure was gone again, and the hand released from his shoulder. Izuku turned to Yang, who was still at his bedside, as the brawler continued, "I know. Just... please be careful, alright?"

All Izuku could do was nod, and as Yang turned and left the room, he felt heat rush to his face en masse, his mind currently unable to rid itself of the thought of what Yang had done to comfort him.

 _Why am I feeling this lightheaded? And giddy? I know I really, really like her, but it was only a... a..._

 _DAMNIT, NOW I CAN'T STOP THINKING ABOUT IT!_

 _(around the same time, just outside Peach's office, Yang's POV)_

 _Oh Oum, I think my heart's gonna explode!_ Yang thought to herself as she exited the room, sighing in relief as she did so. _It's alright, Yang. All you did was kiss a guy on the forehead. No big deal. He's just really, really cute and nice and you've had a huge crush on him for the last few months._

 _…_

 _And now I can't stop thinking about it. Yay me._

When Yang pulled herself from these thoughts, she saw Shoto across the way, sitting down in a cheap plastic chair, still in his half-destroyed hunter's outfit, staring down at his hands, a blank yet worried look donning his features as he stared at them intently. Was he still feeling guilty over what had happened in the ring? Yang wasn't about to blame him if he was. She'd be feeling the same way in his shoes, what with everything that had gone down.

Still, she wasn't about to let the guy wallow in his own misery if she could help it.

"You going inside?" she asked, causing the half and half leader to slowly turn his gaze up to her, his blank look from before now replaced by a guilty one.

"He's not bitter about anything, if that's what you're worried about," the blonde tried to reassure him.

"... I don't know if I can even look at him," Shoto finally said. "His arm... his leg... those weird marks from earlier... those are all my fault. He did that because it was the only way to fight me when I was going all out. No matter how I look at it, I just... I can't help but-"

"Hey!" Yang slapped him on the shoulder, getting his attention and interrupting his monologue. "What happened out there wasn't your fault. Izuku made the choice to break his limbs. And while I'd rather he have thought of another way to fight you, what's done is done. And you guys really need to talk. Besides, you're friends, right?"

"... yeah."

Yang smiled, the turning and following the others down the same hallway they exited from, briefly saying over her shoulder, "Then talk to him already. It'll be fine."

 _(Shoto's POV)_

 _… well, if nothing else, Yang certainly knows how to motivate people._ Shoto thought as he stood. _Here goes._

He stepped through the doorway, finding Peach's office as it had been the previous two times he'd been there. The same lazy desk, the same sterile white sheets, the same kinda uncomfortable looking beds. And in one of those said uncomfortable beds, with a cast tightly bound to his left arm and right leg, still in the same clothes he'd fought in just a few hours prior, was Izuku.

The green haired boy beamed at the sight of his partner, greeting him as he came in, "Hey! You doing alright?"

…

"That's what I'm supposed to be asking you."

"I know. But seriously though, you alright?"

"... I guess so," Shoto said as he sat down next to the bed, a smile unknowingly edging its way onto his face. "I mean, my limbs aren't broken, so that's a plus."

"Yeah, I wouldn't recommend it," Izuku said with an even wider grin, the two chuckling to each other soon after. It was surprisingly comforting. Why had he been so afraid to just talk to his friend? It was so easy.

The two talked for a long while, gradually becoming more and more comfortable and laughing harder and harder. It was nice. But, there came the inevitable topic. The one that Shoto, while he was still uncomfortable with it, had to own up to.

"I know this might be uncomfortable to answer, but... your left side. Are you..."

Izuku didn't finish the question, but he didn't have to either. Shoto knew what he was asking.

"I'm not sure. A few hours ago, I actually had a run in with Endeavor. I told him 'I've accepted nothing,' but... when I used my left side, I wasn't thinking of him at all. And I felt _whole_. As if I could finally _like_ who I am, and not let the things that my father has done weigh me down. But I'm scared. I want to be who I am, I want to use my power to help people, but I don't know what that'll cost. I'm scared that if I use my left side again too soon, I could hurt someone. I don't want to do that. I just... I need to know what my left side is fully capable of. I don't think I'll ever be fully confident using it if I don't."

Izuku listened intently, never interrupting him or objecting to any of his points. Shoto was a troubled person, and using his left side after so long was a huge shift for him. He'd broken a promise he'd kept to himself for over ten years. That wasn't something he was going to get over very easily, or anytime soon for that matter.

But he could help him start.

"Well, I'm not really sure how to say this," Izuku began as Shoto had finished, a few seconds of silence having passed between them. "But if nothing else, you've proved to everyone else that you're willing to give your all to be the best. If you feel like you can't use it until you have more control or you're more comfortable with it, then that's fine. You said before that you weren't thinking of Endeavor in the slightest when you used your power, right?"

"Yeah."

"So... well, I'm not sure if it'll work or not, but maybe... try not to focus on him. Like I said before, that power is yours. Not his, not mine, _yours_. It's your call what you do with it. I'll give you advice if I can, but in the end, it's all up to you."

Shoto stayed silent for a while, staring down at his left hand once again as he did so. He knew that he wouldn't lead with this power: he still didn't want to use it. Not fully. But maybe if he could just keep Endeavor off his mind...

 _It could help me start._

The half and half leader then stood from his chair and took a deep, longwinded sigh. "I'll... need some time to think about this. But thank you, Izuku," Shoto said as he turned to his partner, with a full smile on his face for the first time in a long while. "Actually, I was thinking about going somewhere after the Vytal Festival is over."

"Really? Well, are you going to anywhere specific?"

"I'm... gonna head to Mistral. See my mom. She was put in a hospital over there by my dad almost a decade ago. I want... no, I _need_ to see her again. If I'm going to keep using my left side, I... I need to at least see her. One last time."

Izuku said nothing, instead only giving Shoto an understanding nod. While he knew that it was hard to live up to legacy, especially one you didn't really know about or quite understand fully. He loved Ryuji and Makoto to death, but he'd always felt unworthy in their presence. If he could talk to his dad, he'd certainly do it in a heartbeat.

"That'll do you some good. I mean, I hope it does."

"You could come with me, ya know. I wouldn't mind the company," Shoto offered.

"Sorry. I've gotta keep up to snuff with my training. I mean, I made it pretty far in the tournament, but that was really because you backed me up and I decided to go ballistic. I've got a really long way to go before I'm anywhere near your level."

"Well, to each their own, I suppose," Shoto said as he walked towards the door, stopping briefly as he continued over his shoulder, "And Izuku? You gave one hell of a fight."

 _(a few minutes later, Izuku's POV)_

The green haired inheritor had been given some time to think before Toshinori returned in his deflated form. About the marks and One for All specifically. What did they mean? Were they connected in some way? And after that came the questions of his self-worth, and... dammit, he'd just managed to gain some confidence, why the hell was he questioning it now?! But...

 _Why did he choose me? It could've been anyone. It could've been Shoto. It could've been Hitoshi; hell, it probably should've been Pyrrha. What... just what makes me so special?_

It was at that time that Toshinori stepped into the room with a look of worry on his face, but one that soon receded as he tried to make himself look more confident. He had a crutch in his hand, which he handed to his successor as he asked, "You feeling good enough to walk?"

"Yeah," Izuku stood from the bed, the crutch underneath his good arm as he placed some comfortable weight onto his casted right leg, following his mentor out of Peach's office and down the surprisingly empty hall.

"Hey, All Might? Do you remember why you came to Beacon in the first place?"

"Yeah?" Toshinori stopped mid-stride, the hall still empty of people.

"I put everything I had into this tournament. I know I did. But there are people who've been fighting a whole lot harder than I have. So... I don't know. Maybe..."

"You're thinking it might've been better for someone else to be my successor, right?"

Izuku, taking a deep, shaky breath, answered the gangly man, "Yes."

"Well, you aren't wrong, in terms of power. This place _is_ full of those with an incredible amount of potential. And One for All is something that enhances other powers, in addition to the physical strength boost. For example, if Shoto had inherited it, the strength that it would've added on top of the enhancements to both of his semblances would've likely made him nearly undefeatable."

"Then... why-"

"But, you know," Toshinori continued, preventing Izuku from doubting himself any more than he already was, "I was Fractured too, when I was a kid."

"... huh?" Izuku's eyes visibly widened at that, looking up at his mentor who now held a bony smirk on his face.

"Back then, it had really only just started to show up, so it wasn't quite as well-known of. But yeah, I didn't have a semblance either. My master entrusted One for All to me, and with Torino's help, I eventually got to where I am now.

"I guess I saw a bit of the old me in you, way back then. And I certainly don't regret choosing you as my successor. Like I've said, you've got the mindset to be a great huntsman. You've already gone above and beyond so many of my expectations, and I know that once you graduate, you're going to do amazing things with One for All.

"Well, you oughta get going now. I think you and Miss Nikos have a few things to discuss," Toshinori patted Izuku on the back as he said that. Izuku flashed him a brief smile before he continued on, saying, "You got it!" over his shoulder as he continued towards where the redheaded amazon was likely to be located.

 _(about an hour later, the usual spot, Pyrrha's POV)_

Lancelot was proving to be quite the opponent, especially since he was so large. And, though his size did impede him somewhat, his swordplay was incredibly graceful. Maybe this is what Jaune might be fully capable of someday?

But, of course, Paladin Mode did have one huge weakness. Get to the person controlling the Fable, in this case, Jaune...

"~Gotcha~," Pyrrha said in a singsong voice, Milo playfully held about two inches away from his throat, with a satisfied smile on her face.

"Ah! Man!" Jaune said to himself as Paladin Mode dispersed, leaving Lancelot's helmet floating in the air as Pyrrha removed Milo and offered him a hand up. "I almost had you that time!"

"True. And you lasted longer than I'd expected you to," Pyrrha said as she pulled Jaune to his feet, quite easily, then holding up her Scroll for him to see, with a prideful, supportive grin on her face. "A whole thirty seconds longer than last time! That's amazing!"

"Whoa, really?!" Jaune said as he looked at her Scroll with wide eyes, then turning and jumping excitedly into the air. "Yes!" He then landed, turned back to the redheaded amazon, and gave her one of the tightest hugs that Pyrrha had ever been given in her entire life. "Thank you so much! I couldn't have done any of this without your help!"

"D-don't mention it!" she replied with a visibly darkening of her cheeks. _Oh Oum. He's hugging me. He's hugging me really, really tight. Would it be creepy to say that this feels nice?_

Before she could think on this further, they heard someone audibly clear their throat from the entrance to their training spot. The two quickly separated, turning to find Izuku standing there with a crutch under his right shoulder and his limbs still heavily casted with a sheepish look on his face. "Sorry to interrupt your training, but could I talk to Pyrrha for a few minutes? It'll take about ten at the most."

Jaune raised his eyebrow at this, though a shoulder tap from Pyrrha quickly got him out of his mindset. "It's only ten minutes. I'll be back before you know it. Besides, you need a break anyway."

"I... yeah, I do," Jaune admitted.

"Okay. See you in a bit!" Pyrrha said with a smile over her shoulder, joining Izuku as he walked, though a tad bit slowly, towards a spare bench in the empty hallway, closing the door to the rooftop behind her.

"Are you sure you don't need help?" she asked, seeing how difficult it was for him to walk properly.

"Yeah. If I don't put any weight on my foot, it won't heal properly. The crutch just makes it look worse than it is," Izuku explained, sitting himself down on the bench. Pyrrha sat down as he asked his first question, "So, why aren't you guys over at the Coliseum? Weren't there supposed to be a bunch of more matches today?"

"There was, but I'm afraid the fight between you and Shoto damaged it to the point that they had to put the rest of the matches on hold in order to properly repair it."

"Ah. Sorry about that," Izuku apologized with yet another sheepish look donning his features.

"No need. That was a rather intense battle. I'm not sure I could've fought someone like that without causing at least that much damage. Unintentionally, of course!" Pyrrha quickly added.

"Y-yeah!" Izuku said. There was then a silence between them, both knowing of the inevitable subject that would have to come up.

"So... the Fall Maiden, huh?" Izuku awkwardly tried to start.

Pyrrha picked up on this quickly. "Yes. I still can't believe all of those old stories are true. The prospect is rather tempting but..."

She didn't have to finish. This way different than inheriting One for All had been. While it had taken him a very, very long time, and took him almost a year, he'd earned his power. Pyrrha... if she accepted this, she could lose herself. That was incredibly serious.

The redhead in question quickly changed to subject. "Erm... All Might... he said you were his apprentice. Is that really true?"

Izuku nodded firmly.

"Well, I was wondering... how did the two of you meet, exactly? I mean you seem close, so it must've been a long time ago."

This was where Izuku hesitated. He hadn't really told anyone about how he'd met All Might, or the fact that he was a Fractured. While the subject had come up a few times in the past, people usually learned about it through someone else, or they already knew about it. He'd never actually told anyone outright that he was a Fractured in a long time; ever since he'd met All Might, really. Bakugo hadn't brought the subject up in months, and the people on Ozpin's council already knew. He hadn't even told Yang or Shoto, the two people who were closest to him, about the fact. But still, if Pyrrha was going to take this risk with the Fall Maiden powers, then he might as well tell her what little he knew. It wouldn't be fair to her if he didn't.

"I haven't really told anyone about this. Please don't tell anyone else. I don't think I'm ready for them to know yet."

"Of course," Pyrrha promised, with honest attention in her eyes. She knew that this was going to be important.

And so, after a full second of silence, he told her everything. About how he met All Might, the fact that he was a Fractured, how he inherited One for All, what he knew of All for One, the Inclined; everything he could think of so that they were both on the same page. He was putting a great deal of trust in her silence, but something told him that it wasn't misplaced. It took about five minutes of straight talking, but eventually, Izuku had told her what he knew.

"That's... wow. That is a lot to take in. And... my Oum, Izuku, I'm so sorry," Pyrrha said, visibly slumping back into the bench as Izuku finished.

"You don't need to apologize. You didn't know. Besides, this was my choice. I'm gonna stick by it till the end. I know that this is all pretty overwhelming, on top of everything else."

"No, no. I'm just glad that you were willing to share that much information with me to begin with. And... you're a Fractured as well."

"... yeah."

"I don't mean to sound offensive or anything, but... well, I've actually never met a Fractured before. I mean, I've heard of them, but there weren't really any in lower Anima. So... who else knows about that? Besides Bakugo."

"Just Ozpin's council, Torino, and now you."

"And that odd vision you had, back when you soloing at Torino's place... do you think it might've meant the marks you have on your skin now? The whole 'Warden's Brand' fiasco?"

"I... didn't actually think about that possibility. Maybe. I guess we'll just have to wait and see."

"... okay." Pyrrha visibly straightened herself as she said that. "I won't tell anyone about any of this. Not unless you want me to, that is."

"Thank you." Izuku audibly sighed with this, signifying his relief. Then, a bit of wonder popped into his head. "Hey, Pyrrha? What's it like? In lower Anima, I mean."

"Well, I suppose you did trust me with a lot. It's the least I could do. Other than the Grimm that sometimes plague the area, it's a rather lovely place. The people are very welcoming, especially compared to how discriminatory the northern parts of Anima can be. And the fish... oh my Oum I miss the fish..." Pyrrha said as her stomach audibly growled, causing her to cover her lower torso quickly with both arms and gain a sheepish look to her features. "Sorry. Got a little homesick there.

"It's home to the largest pantheon church on Remnant, though I'm sure that's fairly common knowledge by now. Most fighters who grow up there either become world trotting warriors or wandering hunters. Like what we're trying to become. Tournaments there are fairly common, though thankfully they're not nearly as brutal as certain aspects of the media make them out to be. As to my own childhood... well, after my father died, it mostly training and school. I didn't really get to be what most would call a 'normal kid.' But I know that my mother never stopped caring about me. She wouldn't have pushed for me to improve so much if she didn't."

"Sounds hard," Izuku said.

"It was. But I never hated it. If anything, it gave me a reason to push myself further, and do better by the people who helped me. Oh! It looks like our ten minutes are up," Pyrrha said as she stood from the bench, stretching her arms over her head as he did so. Izuku then left the bench as well, the two standing next to each other before Pyrrha said, "Thank you for trusting me. I promise, it hasn't been misplaced."

"You as well," Izuku held out his hand, which Pyrrha immediately took and gave a firm shake. A final symbol of trust between the two friends. They then went their separate ways, with their own concerns and responsibilities now weighing on each of them once more.

 _(the next day, dusk, Amity Coliseum, Izuku's POV)_

 _"Welcome, one and all, to the part of the tournament you've all been waiting for! The one on one finals!"_ Port announced to the crowd, who now cheered with untamed excitement and anticipation. Izuku was among some of the more non-vocal spectators, but he was no less excited. Whether it was Yang, Shoto, Pyrrha, or Sun fighting, he knew that this was going to be an exciting match.

"Are you sure you're even allowed to be out here right now, Izuku? Those injuries still look kinda bad," Ruby said with a concerned tone. The rest of her team sat to her left while the other two members of STIK sat to his right, with JNR right in front of them and SSN in the row above them, most of whom were concentrating on the spectacle in front of them. Izuku's casts, while they had been significantly thinned, were still a cause for concern for worrywarts like Ruby.

"I wanted to see that rest of the matches myself. I could get some really good notes out of them. That and I really want to support the others if they end up fighting."

"Can't argue with that," Ruby admitted defeat, then holding out a white and red striped paper box to him. "Popcorn?"

"Yes please," Izuku accepted the offer, biting into the handful he'd pulled out as he and Ruby continued to share the box.

 _"Now then, let's begin the randomization process!"_ Oobleck said as the ballots began to spin for several seconds first landing on Mercury Black of Team CDEM, and then, after a few more seconds, landing on Yang. The two were hand to hand specialists, but in very different ways. The stage was soon cleared of everyone but the two of them, shifting into their fighting stances as they inched ever closer to each other, the countdown to the match echoing in the background as they did so.

 _"Three!"_

Another step.

 _"Two!"_

Another.

 _"One!"_

Their leading hands were now practically touching, their eyes giving away nothing except their determination to fight.

 _"Begin!"_

 **A/N: And that's a wrap for this chapter! Seriously you guys, thank you all so much for making this possible! You're all awesome! If you have any questions or concerns, please either PM me or ask me via the reviews! That and it's actually really nice talking with you guys.**

 **Next Chapter: Aug. 5th**

 **Seeya in the next one!**


	37. Truths and Trials

**A/N: Ah, time to just sit back, relax, and-**

 ***ding***

 **PRAY TO THE HOLY FANFIC GODS OF EPICNESS BECAUSE WE'VE JUST HIT OVER 100,000 TOTAL VIEWS! OH MY FREAKING GOD, THIS IS AMAZING! THANK YOU ALL SO MUCH! ENJOY!**

 **Disclaimer: I do not own RWBY or My Hero Academia. They belong to Monty Oum, Kohei Horikoshi, and their respective publishing companies. Please support the official releases**

 **I do not own the cover image**

Chapter 37: Truths and Trials

With a final, nearly deafening crack that spilt through the air, Yang finished her fiery combo of haymakers and sent Mercury sprawling across the ground, her body visibly steaming from the intensity if her own semblance. She let out a long, winded breath, giving her vibrant red eyes a long blink before smiling and waving to the crowd, who cheered for the blonde and her victory, her pupils having returned to their natural shade of purple.

 _"In an astounding turn of events, Yang Xiao Long of Beacon Academy has won the match, and will be advancing to the next round!"_

"WOOO! GO YANG!" Izuku yelled from where he sat, his good arm raised in a fist with an excited grin spread across his lips. She'd won! He'd been scared there for a minute, but she'd actually won! This was awesome-

And then, the headache came. He brought his hand down to his forehead, his eyes scrunched together in visible pain, collapsing back into his seat as he tried to lessen the pain.

When he managed to finally open his eyes again, though just barely, he found himself staring out at an odd yet familiar sight. There were hundreds of tiny, white orbs dotting and highlighting the dark scope of his vision. Standing in the middle of the arena were two figures that seemed familiar to him, to an extent. One was a golden, fiery figure that almost emanated the flames that flickered and snapped from her figure. The other wasn't quite as identifiable, a dark grey mist of a person, giving away nothing as to his intentions. And overlaid onto him was a familiar shade of green. It immediately told him that something was wrong, as the last time he'd seen it, Coco had been somehow tricked into letting her guard down, causing her and Yatsu to lose their match.

A voice rang out, murky, unidentifiable, almost like it had been muffled by a piece of cloth or a mask of some kind, and the green mist took the form of the dark grey figure and launched itself at the golden one. Before Izuku could say something, yet again, the pain came back, causing him to scrunch up his eyes once more and blind himself from what was happening.

When he opened them again, what he saw was both shocking and simultaneously confusing and terrifying. Mercury was now on the ground, clutching a seemingly broken leg or a potentially shattered kneecap, Yang looking confused, apologetic, and straight up scared, and at least a full platoon of AKs surrounding her.

What the hell had just happened? And why did he feel like something wasn't right?

 _(the next day, the dorm hall, Shoto's POV)_

 _This is getting out of hand,_ Shoto thought as he observed the AKs currently stationed outside of Team RWBY's door. He could understand the reasoning behind it, Ironwood was in there, and Yang hadn't exactly been happy with what was essentially unofficial house arrest, but she didn't resist going with them, despite her own temper. So what the hell gives?

This is what was going through the half and half leader's head as he paced outside the room, the AKs never moving a single inch as he did so. Tenya leaned against the wall across from him, with his arms crossed and his eyes staring at the floor, a conflicted look taking precedence on his features. Bakugo looked pretty worried about something and had decided to blow off some steam by going down to Vale proper and hitting up a café he frequented for the past few weeks.

And Izuku? Ever since Yang had broken Mercury's leg, he'd hardly seen the green haired boy outside of the library after breakfast and the session with Peach, burying himself in some kind of research. He didn't manage to see what it was about, and it was kinda worrying him. Still, Izuku had asked him to make sure Yang was doing alright, and it was the least he could do for his partner.

At the end of this train of thought, Ironwood emerged from RWBY's dorm room with his hands behind his back and a reluctant sigh from his lips. Tenya then perked up, asking, "Is she alright? Has she calmed herself?"

"She's... well, she's doing the best she can, for right now. I can only hope that she gets better. I just gave her some pretty harsh news."

"And that was?" Shoto then asked.

"... due to the events surrounding the end of her match, as well as the boy's condition... it's been decided by vote that Yang Xiao Long be disqualified from the tournament. I'm sorry," Ironwood said with a slight incline to his head.

"But she wouldn't-"

"Shoto," Ironwood said sternly, with as much authority as you would expect from someone in his position. "I wasn't happy with this decision either. I know that she's a good student and likely only meant to defend herself. But the fact of the matter is that thousands of people saw what she did, intentionally or not. It doesn't matter if something else entirely happened, they've already drawn their own conclusions, and are still drawing their own conclusions. If we let her continue, it could cause a lot of negativity to spike. We didn't make this choice lightly. It's the best one we had available."

The silence that permeated the space afterwards was uncomfortable, but one thing was certain. This decision was final. It wasn't going to change. Ironwood, his expression still hardened, turned and walked out of the hallway, leaving a single AK unit outside of RWBY's dorm as a security measure. A few seconds later, Ruby, Weiss, and Blake emerged from the room, closing the door behind them, only giving Shoto a very brief glance at the distraught, and likely downtrodden, Yang.

"Is she doing okay?" Jaune asked from the entrance to JNPR's room, with Ren and Nora peering out nervously.

"She needs a bit of time, but I think she'll be okay," Ruby said, though it was clear that she wanted to do more than simply wait. "In the meantime, you guys should probably get ready for tonight. The tournament's still going, after all, and I'll be there to cheer you guys on!"

"As will I," Tenya said as he straightened himself, briefly taking the time to readjust the glasses on his face. "It will be good to focus on something more positive for a while."

"No offense guys, but I think I've had my fill of fighting for the year," Blake said. "Some quiet would probably do better for me."

"Ditto here," Weiss agreed. "Want to grab some coffee?"

"I prefer tea, but why not?"

"If I wasn't one of the finalists, I'd be tempted to join you two," Shoto said, his head lulling at the fact that he might have to fight still. He didn't really mind that much, but temperature would be a lot harder to handle without Jotunheim to assist him. "Oh well. Guess we'll just have to take a day on the town once the tournament's over."

"That sounds like a plan. Guys? What do you say?" Ruby asked her two present teammates, both of whom nodded in agreement. Nora then yelled from the room, "We should totally invite all the teams we fought against! Ya know, ABRN, TAKT, HHOT, BRNZ, FNKI, SSSN, CFVY, and the ones I can't remember!"

"Are you entirely sure we can organize that many people? And are we even sure that they'll stay for the long-"

"We'll cross that bridge when we get to it, Tenya," Shoto reassured his teammate as he moved to follow RWB out of the dorm and towards the arena. It was time to focus. Get his game face on. Maybe call Momo before then, calm his nerves some.

The two middle members of Team RWBY then made their way out of the dorm with Ruby on their heels, briefly stopping by JNPR's door and saying, "Win one for Beacon, Pyrrha!"

With a brief moment of hesitation, and looking as though she'd been pulled from other thoughts, Pyrrha put a strained smile on her face as she turned to the doorway and answered her friend, "I'll do my best!"

Then, Ruby left, letting JNPR's door close behind her as she and Shoto headed their separate ways for the arena, the latter worrying about his partner all the while.

 _(meanwhile, Beacon Library, Izuku's POV)_

For what seemed like the three hundredth time that day, Izuku was stumped. How hard was it to find some simple school records?! They were public, weren't they?! That was the case for Beacon and most of the other students who'd participated in the tournament, so why was this team so hard to find?!

For the past several hours, Izuku had been trying to scratch a rather curious itch that had been there since Yang's fight with Mercury had ended. The vision had hardly left his mind since then, and the uncertainty had kept him up for a while, though he still managed to get some semblance of sleep. He'd review the footage of the fight afterwards, and he noticed something off about Yang's punch. It wasn't entirely angled downward, as one would expect in a situation like this: it was angled diagonally. From the distance she was at, it definitely would've hit Mercury in the leg, but she made the punch as though he was much closer than he actually was, like she was countering an attack.

It also confused him that Emerald was the only one of Mercury's teammates to show up at the scene. Where the hell were Dabi and Cinder? They should've at least gone with him on the airship back to Mistral, but this was just... odd. Weren't they concerned about their teammate?

Too many things didn't add up right, and all of that combined with his doubts about Yang's match had sent him here, researching whatever he could find on Team CDEM to find some form of an answer.

 _If only I could actually find their Oumdamned files!_

Izuku banged his head against the hardwood table in frustration, a discontented groan emerging from as he did so. This should've been easier than it was. The kingdoms required complete transparency with each other regarding their hunter statuses, for the Vytal Festival especially, and though Atlas had objected to this very strongly, they agreed.

 _Maybe I should've gone to the CCT for this. It'd be a lot easier to get info downloaded, at least._ Izuku thought as he raised his head, dusting off the sleeves of his blazer as he did so. He mulled over what thoughts had piled up as he'd tried to do what research he could. Hell, birth and death records would be better than this.

Then, it clicked. That was it. The people on Team CDEM didn't come out of nowhere. Maybe he could find something through a cross-reference program that some of the more tech-savvy teachers at Beacon used to demonstrate the wide variety of fields that hunters sometimes had to delve into. Why hadn't he thought of this earlier? Izuku had no idea and was practically hitting himself over the head because of it.

A few simple clicks, a few minutes of waiting, and a couple of pictures of CDEM that had been provided for the tournament, and he had what little he could find: two death records and two errors. Dabi and Emerald, according to the information that had been provided, apparently didn't officially exist. That in itself was both strange and concerning.

The death records were far worse offenders in this case. Mercury was one of them. Supposedly, about two years ago, Mercury Black had died in a fire in the upper mountains of central Mistral along with his father, a rather infamous assassin named Marus. However, the name Black was rather common in that area, as was usually the case with primary colors; and the bodies had been so charred that even dental records, what little existed, couldn't identify them, so authorities had assumed that the two had died that day. All someone had to do to fake the records was switch a few things around: birthdate, blood type, place of birth, and boom! Fake identity. Of course, if it were any other name than a primary color it'd be a lot more work, but convenience paid off for them, apparently.

Cinder's records, on the other hand, weren't actually hers. Well, the person in the records looked like a younger version of her, at least. Her hair had been cropped back, ending at around her jawline, and her features were softer, from what little there was on her. According to the records, her name was Ella Glass, an orphan who had been taken in by the Merry Men Mercenary Company, or M3C, at the ripe old age of fourteen. The records also said that she had supposedly died while going on a mission into particularly dangerous territory. No one had found any trace of her since then, and even though the leader of the M3C himself, Robin "Hood" Vulpes, had scouted the place where she'd last been sighted for almost two weeks, he too had found nothing.

 _Guess he knows where she is now, if he's watching the festival._ Izuku thought as he compiled the information that he'd found and downloaded it onto his scroll. And now came the wait.

About three minutes in, the download process ever so painfully slow, Toshinori wandered through the library with a few books under his arm, his gangly frame ever iconic to the blazer-wearing inheritor. He suddenly felt the need to hide what he was downloading, since it was rather scrupulous, but he managed to reign himself in and realize that outright hiding this would probably make things worse.

Toshinori then noticed Izuku, walking over to his apprentice and saying, "Hey, Izuku. How've you been?"

"... not sure, really."

"Look, I know Yang getting outed like that was pretty harsh, but... well, sometimes that's just how things happen," Toshinori sat down as he continued. "I don't know what happened down there, but I do know that judgment can get pretty clouded when you're in the middle of a fight. It's happened to me, Aizawa, and most of the other teachers you've met here. Even Ironwood knows what it can be like. Better than most, actually. I'm not going to out Yang for doing what she saw as defending herself. It's good that she has instincts like that at all."

"I know. It's just... why would they do that to her? It's too cruel. She'd never do that. Not on purpose."

"People draw their own conclusions, and oftentimes they can twist the truth to fit their beliefs. No one likes to choose the whole truth over the legend, the myth. Some do, but they're a rare kind of person. Especially in this day and age. So, when it comes to reality, if you ever have a choice between the two, choose the truth. It'll probably piss you off at first, and you might not want to accept it, but it _is_ the truth."

A comfortable silence fell between them after that. But something else was bothering Izuku at the moment. Granted, it wasn't quite as much of a big deal as what was happening with Yang but it concerned him nonetheless.

"Hey, All Might? When I was fighting Shoto, I think I might've seen something. It wasn't for that long, maybe half a second, but I think... I think Process might've activated, and I thought I saw two colors where Shoto was. I think they were melding. Ike paints getting mixed together to form a new color. Is that important?"

"Hmm... well, do you remember what I said in that one fairy tale I told to you and Pyrrha?"

Izuku nodded firmly.

"I mentioned before that there had been a new development for that stuff. Soul Fusion, or I guess the more accurate version would be 'Fused.' It's basically what happens when, in pregnancy, a pair of twins aren't fully conceived, and the result is basically a combination of everything those twins would've been individually. Looks, body type, stronger blood type, appearance. But the key aspect to that process is that they have both souls existing in tandem with their bodies. It isn't always the most stable, but it's possible to live with both souls if it doesn't destroy your own body in the process. So, the two are either constantly fighting with one another... or they can come to an equilibrium. You can imagine how unhealthy the former can be. You basically saved Shoto's long-term sanity. So good on you, Izuku."

A beep then sounded from the computer that Izuku had used, indicating that the download was now complete. The green haired inheritor then plucked the scroll from what was its perch and gave a quick goodbye and thanks to Toshinori, who gave a silent smile in return as he rushed off to RWBY's dorm room, where he hoped Yang still was.

 _(about twenty minutes later, Team RWBY's dorm, Yang's POV)_

"So, if you ever want to track her down, be sure to give me a ring. Alright, Firecracker?" Qrow said as he finished his explanation to Yang. She was interested, sure, and she certainly wanted to give her mother a piece of her mind, but...

"Okay. But... I need to get myself together. I don't think I can go after her right now." Yang said, her head hung low.

"Okay. Offer stands, once you get your shit sorted out," Qrow said as he made for the door, only briefly stopping to say, "It's alright to fuck up sometimes, Firecracker. Doesn't matter how. Matters what you learn from failing, and getting back up to try again."

A turn of the doorknob, the creek of the hinges, and one soft click later, the red-eyed reaper was gone, like he'd never even been there. Like dust on the wind. It was solemn. Quiet. And not in a way that Yang was comfortable with. She didn't want to hurt anyone. He attacked her, so she attacked back.

… right?

A knock then came from the currently closed door. While she did acknowledge it, the blonde brawler made no move to answer the door. All she wanted to do right now was stew in her own thoughts.

"E-erm... Yang? Are you in there?"

 _… Izuku?_

Yang immediately rose from her bed and made for the door, her boots audibly echoing across the floor as she walked. And yet, even as she reached for the handle, she hesitated. What if he judged her? What if he couldn't accept what had happened? She hadn't. Why should he?

She shook herself from those thoughts as quickly as she could. _No. This is Greenie we're talking about. He wouldn't do that._

Yang then opened the door slowly, gazing into the hallway to find Izuku in the doorway with an eager look on his face. "Mind if I come in?" He asked as politely as he could. It looked as though he had something to show her. And it seemed important.

The blonde brawler quickly opened the door and ushered him inside, closing the door behind him with another click. They sat across from each other as yet another uncomfortable silence managed to find its way into the room once more. Izuku looked both nervous and doubtful of his situation. But Yang didn't fault him for that. She was feeling the exact same way, after all. How was she supposed to explain what happened?

As it turned out, she didn't have to.

"I know that you didn't mean to break his leg. You'd never do that under any circumstances," Izuku said, looking her dead in the eye as he did. "You said before that you'd help me when I needed it. Well, the same goes for you. If you need my help, I'll be there for you. And it's not just me either. Your team, JNPR, the rest of mine, we'll all be here for you."

Yang wanted to object. Say that she didn't deserve his help in the slightest. But all she could do was tear up. She didn't cry, forced herself not to. She couldn't cry now. So she wiped her eyes before they could fully form and fall, then smiling kindly at the green haired boy and said, "Thanks, Greenie. I needed that."

"Also," Izuku said as he dug into his pockets to produce his Scroll, flicking it open as he went through various files, "I think I might've found something on CDEM."

"Wait, seriously?!" Yang said as she scooted closer and peeked over his shoulder to get a closer look.

"Yeah. And if the information here is accurate, then... well, they shouldn't even exist."

 _(meanwhile, somewhere in Beacon, Tenya's POV)_

 _That was rather fun. And it was good of Jaune to try and relieve Pyrrha's stress. She'll need full concentration for the battles ahead._ The spectacled boy thought as he walked back to Beacon proper with Ren and Nora, the former with a large bucket of popcorn in his arms while the latter carried a rather large cone of cotton candy. They started to turn a corner, where the bubbly hammer wielder saw her two teammates sitting rather close to each other. Closer than one would consider friends, anyhow. Sensing that they weren't needed, she grabbed Ren by the collar, saying, "C'mon Ren, you've gotta win me another stuffed animal!" before dragging him away.

Tenya, however, stayed nearby, to turn away anyone else who might've been coming in the direction and potentially interrupt the couples alone time. He didn't eavesdrop on them, filtering their conversation out as white noise. It gave him some time to multitask, stewing with his thoughts as he watched for any potential onlookers.

It had been a long while since he'd really done anything of significance. Not that he didn't have some moments, but it seemed as though the other three were outpacing him at almost everything. If he named a single fight since the one against Stain, he hadn't really been doing as much as he could've. His teammates would say otherwise, he knew they would, but out of all four of them he was probably the weakest. Shoto was the son of Endeavor, and had two semblances to contend with, Izuku was a powerhouse of speed with intelligence that rivaled, and potentially exceeded, his own, and Bakugo was a one-man army with a semblance that could quite literally blow the skin off of any opponent he faced. Him? He was the fastest out of the four of them, as well as their long-range specialist. That was really it. He knew that compared to others at Beacon he'd still be considered one of the best fighters, but after that he was constantly being outpaced by most of his friends.

Still, he wasn't jealous of them. They'd all done a lot to improve from where they'd started at the beginning of the year. Especially Jaune and Izuku. Out of all of them, those two had certainly improved the most. He couldn't fall behind them any longer. He had to improve too. If the others were pushing themselves beyond their limits, then he had to do the same. He'd catch up to them. He had the tools in front of him, now all he had to do was figure out what to do with them.

"Stop!"

Tenya was immediately shaken from his thoughts at that scream, standing from his place against the wall and using his semblance to zip around the corner. What he saw was greatly confusing and even moreso concerning. Pyrrha was using her semblance, her arm stretched wide, to push Jaune away from her, visibly causing him to impact into one of the pillars behind him, though he had been shielded thanks in large part to the protective chest plate of Lancelot. But that too was not his cause for concern. Just what had happened between these two while he had been lost in thought?

The redheaded amazon then realized what she had just done, suddenly releasing the grip she held with her semblance and allowing Jaune to tumble to the ground, Lancelot's armor briefly flickering from the impact before fading. Pyrrha's gloved hands then pulled back to cover a guilty look and teary eyes, only saying "I'm sorry," before turning and rushing past Tenya, who, in his state of shock, made no move to stop her. Jaune cried out for her to stop, that he was confused.

"What did I say?" He muttered to himself. And Tenya didn't have an answer. Only he did.

 _(meanwhile, Amity Coliseum, Shoto's POV)_

A rather uncomfortable tone was hanging over the arena as they readied for the next battle. Port and Oobleck were trying their best to ease the tension of the audience, and to an extent it was certainly working. Many among the faceless crowd were cheering at the prospect of the next battle coming around the bend. But for those who knew otherwise, like Shoto, they were distracting from what had happened not a day earlier. It wasn't a bad thing. Focusing on something like that so much could lead to a lot of complication, especially with so many people around, but...

 _Damnit. I can't be going through this now. I need to focus. Win one for Beacon. And for Yang. Honestly, she should be here right now, not me._

Shoto knew that these thoughts weren't going to help him in the slightest, but he couldn't help but think of them. He just needed to breathe. And sitting in the locker rooms, waiting anxiously for your name to potentially be called, and then maybe fighting in a tournament where the entire world was watching? Yeah, it didn't exactly help you keep very calm. But still, he took a deep, anxious breath...

And let it go.

"Nervous?"

Shoto then opened his eyes to find Dabi of Team CDEM standing next to him, his iconic half mask and hood still obscuring much of his face. It seemed as though he was on the way out from somewhere, maybe stopping in the grab something.

"You could say that," Shoto answered. "Wait, isn't your team supposed to be with Mercury?"

"Most of them are. To be entirely honest, I think the guy needed to be taken down a peg. People can make up as many stories as they want to, but he was a cocky prick with a superiority complex the size of Moutain Glenn."

"Seems like you have issues with him. That doesn't mean he deserved to get injured that badly, no matter the context."

"Trust me, if you knew him as well as I do, you'd agree with me when I say he deserved so much more," Dabi said as he closed his eyes, sighing the last sentence. "But I'm not here to argue semantics. Just wanted to get something before I spectate. Also... you fought well. Against Midoriya, I mean."

"So did he. If anything, I'm pretty sure he was fighting even harder than I was. If I could give him my spot, I'd do it in a heartbeat."

A silence fell over the two, neither knowing whether it was comfortable, grating, or a mixture of the two. And then, for the first time in the rare times that Shoto had ever had the chance to even see Dabi, the masked boy actually chuckled. It was very surprising, as he seemed to be the quiet type more than anything else, but it was also kind of disturbing. It was hollow. Like he'd been broken, and had been for a long time now.

But soon after that, the chuckle stopped, and Dabi looked Shoto straight in the eye as he said, "You truly are that foolish. Well, I can't blame you for being optimistic. But know this. The world is a cruel, uncaring place. Do well to remember that, Shoto Todoroki."

And with that final vague, ominous statement, Dabi turned his back to the half and half leader, who, after staring at the shrouded boy's back for a few seconds, confused, suddenly looked down to his hands, wondering what the implications of his words might've been. This thought was one that dominated his mind even as he made his way out to the arena, though for some reason he had a feeling that his name would not be called. And it felt... final.

 **A/N: And that's a cliffhanger! Hopefully! Maybe!**

 **Well, I hope you've enjoyed this so far. Here we are, on the cusp of Volume 3's ending episodes. It's all downhill from here, my readers, so strap in! Cause it's gonna be a bumpy rollercoaster ride of emotions! I mean, I just hope that I can write it that well. I'm not perfect after all! Though to be entirely honest it'd make writing these things a whole lot easier. *sigh* Such is life.**

 **Next Chapter: August 19th**

 **Seeya in the next one!**


	38. Fire and Fear

**A/N: Fair warning: the PvP fight won't be word for word what you see in the show, as well choreographed as the fight might've been. I'll try to keep it relatively close to the end product but still entertaining enough to be its own thing. Besides, repeating what's been done before can get boring pretty fast. I mean, I should know that better than most: the first few chapters of this story aren't exactly the best they could've been. I do have a plan for that, however. But enough of me blabbing on. Enjoy the chapter!**

 **Review Responses:**

 **Guest 1: Yes and no. And don't forget that Shoto isn't the only one in Remnant with heterochromia. He's just the first one they found.**

 **Guest 2: That's for me to know and you to find out. Also, I have no comment to give for your second question.**

 **Thunder Dragon: I highly recommend it! And as much as I wish that I could actually bring them together that soon, it's not gonna be for a while. Sorry about that. And the information thing gets resolved this chapter, but... well, just read on, you'll see. As to that last bit... we'll just have to wait and see. I have been keeping a backlog of different suggestions and story ideas that people have sent me, in case I do anything after this is done (which is probably gonna be a while). So yeah, feel free to send me your suggestion!**

 **Kaisser Dragon: Not for a while, but I promise it won't be at the end of the story either. I'm not that cruel. And while I have been thinking of expanding on story ideas, I really want to finish this one before I do anything else, and it's probably gonna be a while until that happens.**

 **Odin's Eye: BLOOD FOR THE BLOOD GOD! SKULLS FOR THE SKULL THRONE!**

 **… okay, it won't be quite that brutal, but you know what I mean.**

 **Disclaimer: I do not own RWBY or My Hero Academia. They belong to Monty Oum, Kohei Horikoshi, and their respective publishing companies. Please support the official releases.**

 **I do not own the cover image**

Chapter 38: Fire and Fear

Yang and Izuku's boots echoed across the hard floor as they rushed as quickly as they could towards the elevator that led to Ozpin's office. They'd gone over the information that Izuku had gathered for almost a full thirty minutes, from Dabi and Emerald's lack of existence to Cinder and Mercury's death certificates. They had more than enough evidence that there was something off with the team, even if they couldn't rescind Yang's disqualification.

"So, how exactly is this gonna work, Greenie? I don' think It'll just be as easy as walking in and showing Ozpin what we've got on them," Yang said, knowing that this was going to be a lot more complicated than they initially thought it would be.

"Well, right now this is all we can do. I want to get you back in the tournament, but that's a pipe dream the way things are right now. Still, this proves that they faked their way into the tournament, and with everything that's happened, they could be charged with Identity Forgery, among many other things. I just wish I could do more to actually help you."

That got Yang to crack a small smile despite the current mood. Not a whole lot of people would go this far to help somebody, even someone they knew. Yet another thing she liked about Izuku, along with his sincerity and genuine kindness.

As they stepped into the elevator, they heard a voice on the loudspeaker as they announced the next match of the Vytal Festival, the results showing themselves on the monitor that hung in the elevator as the doors closed and the cabin slowly rose. It would be a bit of a trip, so they might as well pass the time with something, right?

Still, Yang had a very uneasy feeling in the back of her mind, concerning this rather odd pairing that would soon be fighting in the ring. Pyrrha and Penny? Seriously, what were the odds of two of the most skilled fighters they knew fighting in this round? It seemed sudden. And almost too perfect.

Just what was going on?

 _(meanwhile, Amity Colesium, Shoto's POV)_

 _"Three!"_ Port bellowed as the two combatants readied their respective weapons, Pyrrha slowly drawing Milo and Akouo from their places on her back while Penny simply smiled as she began to stretch her fingers and gained a rather characteristic and bubbly grin. Shoto thought that the pairing was almost too perfect. There was no was almost no way these two had been chosen randomly. Still, it wasn't impossible, and that fact alone allowed him to calm his nerves and observe them from his perch within the crowd.

 _"Two!"_ Pyrrha narrowed her eyes at her opponent, gripping Milo tighter and positioning Akouo even further in front of her. She was nervous. This might be an opponent who'd be able to best her in combat. If he was down there instead of her, the half and half leader would likely be feeling the same way.

 _"One!"_ The tension reached its crescendo, Penny's gaze hardening as a silence that seemed to last far too long fell between the two opponents.

 _"Begin!"_

The fight began with a flourish of hand gestures from Penny, her many blades unfolding rapidly from the pack attached to her back, those same blade following her hands as they moved. Her blades then shot out at her redheaded opponent, Pyrrha rushing forward to meet the advancing blades, dodging through them with all the grace you would expect of the amazon, never losing focus for even a moment as she continued to make her way towards the bow wearing girl. Shoto could see that that rather impressive display was hardly the beginning of their battle.

 _(Tenya's POV)_

 _It seems as though she's doing alright, at least for now,_ Tenya thought to himself as the battle continued on, Penny's blades coming back to her in a pinwheel formation, forcing Pyrrha to jump out of the way and leaving Penny at a comfortable distance. They started to slowly circle each other, waiting intently for the other to make to first move, make a potential opening in their defenses.

Penny stumbling ever so slightly was all the opportunity that Pyrrha needed to act on, suddenly switching Milo into its javelin form and rushing her bubbly opponent, dodging ever interception attempt she made with carefully timed parries and dodges, eventually allowing her to get through her defenses and begin her own attack.

Milo's edge rocketed forward, fast enough for Penny to be taken temporarily off guard and almost managed to nick the edge of her clothing. She countered with another pinwheel formation to her blades, swinging them outwards as they glowed green with energy, causing Pyrrha to counter with a side flip and a quick shot from Milo's javelin, just barely managing to miss Penny's clothing before she countered with a spare blade spinning rapidly towards her like a buzzsaw, the redheaded amazon only barely managing to block it.

 _This is getting intense. I hope that she can stay focused._

 _(meanwhile, somewhere in Vale, Bakugo's POV)_

 _C'mon, Magnet. Start taking this seriously, dammit._ Bakugo thought to himself as he watched the match from his favorite table at the café he'd been frequenting, a steaming hot cup in his hand as he sat. Pyrrha then retreated further as Penny manipulated another blade to try and take out her legs, jumping over the attempt as she fired Milo again, sending her upwards as she launched her spear towards the copper-haired girl below, who waved her hand in a responding flourish and caused many a blade to dance in formation to send the amazon's spear from whence it came as Pyrrha landed a good, medium distance away.

It was here that she brought her shield to bare, and a good thing too, as Penny's blades had suddenly switched their forms to odd yet still deadly looking floating rifles, which began to prove their use as they opened fire on Pyrrha with green bolts of Dust energy at frightening speed, causing her to dodge the first few before being forced into a corner and forcing her to use Akouo more directly to deflect the incoming fire. This didn't last for long, however, as when the final bolt had been shot Pyrrha began rushing towards her opponent with all haste, this time with Milo in its blade form and Akouo at the ready, but Penny was ready this time, abandoning her long-range style and instead moving to meet the redheaded amazon on a clash that echoed throughout the stadium.

 _Dammit, Magnet, move! She's gonna get you trapped!_

 _(meanwhile, Amity Colesium, Dabi's POV)_

Dabi had to admit, he'd missed out on a lot since leaving the lab. He never remembered Penny being particularly combat savvy, but it was clear that she still remembered all the fights that she'd been required to witness. At least, in some way, he didn't know which but if the absolute beating she was laying down on Pyrrha Nikos was any form of evidence, then it was clear that she wasn't someone to be trifled with.

 _Not that I even would. I've got lines too, dammit._

The close-range fight between the combatants continued with Penny still on the offensive, almost looking as though she was dancing to a melody that only she could hear as her swords clashed against Milo and Akouo, singing a deadly song of blades and steel as the copper-haired girl managed to finally break through Pyrrha's defenses, sending her flipping backwards once more, righting herself in midair to fire off some shots at Penny, who too fired back with a few triple blade powered shots of her own. When Pyrrha got to the ground again, they-

"It's nearly time, Dabi," Kurogiri said to the scared and hooded figure across from him, watching the match from a secluded entryway to the stadium's spectator area. Damn. Thought he'd have a bit more time.

"Okay. Let's get going," Dabi said as the dark man of mist shifted into his warp gate form, Dabi stepping through to the rendezvous point as he too vanished without a sound. Out of sight. Out of mind. Like they were never even there.

 _I don't like that most of us don't know everything. Tomura, I really hope that you can give me some answers. Or you really won't like the way I get them._

 _(meanwhile, undisclosed location in Vale, Tomura's POV)_

 _This is actually pretty damn entertaining,_ the white-haired man thought to himself as he, Compress, Twice, Himiko, Neo and Spinner sat in the nearly cleared area that was their hideout, watching the fight from the bar that they were currently sitting at, with All for One was present via a blank 'AUDIO ONLY' screen.

Penny had just launched herself into the air, using her weapon's gun forms to then send herself rocketing downwards to the arena floor, and her opponent spinning across the concrete ground as she followed through with a kick to where Pyrrha dodged from, a visible impact left in the tile as the fight continued as Pyrrha reached out for Milo-

"Sir. I believe It's almost time."

Tomura took his attention away from the match and gave it to Kurogiri, who'd just warped back into the hideout with Dabi emerging from the gate he'd made. Sighing, Tomura rose from his position on the stool, briefly stopping Oblivion from tipping over and falling as and said, "Five minutes. That's how long we've got till the plan begins. Then we 'storm the palace,' so to speak. Man, this is some clever shit, and that's coming from me."

"What do you mean?"

Tomura sighed at Spinner's question, seeing that his allies, with the exceptions of Compress and Kurogiri, were looking to him for some kind of context or proper answer. Dabi's was especially attentive, and even a bit hostile, but nonetheless he waited for him to give an answer. And the one that Twice gave was especially odd and a bit concerning, but nonetheless he sat and simply said, "Watch and wait. It won't be long now."

 _(meanwhile, Ozpin's office, Izuku's POV)_

The elevator finally, finally reached its destination, the green haired inheritor and the blonde brawler quickly leaving the confines of the space and rushing into the office with all haste, their headmaster sitting behind his desk as he watched the battle between Pyrrha and Penny reach its climax.

"Headmaster, we've got something to show you," Izuku said as they came up to the edge of his desk, the gray-haired man finally taking his eyes from the screen as he acknowledged their presences, a sympathetic look crossing his face as he answered them, "Mr. Midoriya, Ms. Xiao Long. I'm sorry, but-"

"That's not what this is about," Yang said before the words could leave Ozpin's lips, and determined fire behind her eyes instead of the angry ones that he'd expected. It was odd, but it certainly wasn't unwelcome. It was far better than the alternative.

"Then-"

And then, out of the corner of his eye, and through the hollow reflection of the screen, they saw it. The wires catching on to Penny's limbs. Wrapping. Tightening. A creak. A crack. And another, this time around her torso. And it got tighter. Then a sickening groan of metal being torn asunder. The sparking of electrical wires being severed. Blades limp. Clattering to the ground. One half buried by the blade.

Penny had been brutally, viciously torn limb from literal limb. Everyone was in shock. Izuku stared on in horror. Yang's eyes had flared red. Ozpin's ever neutral, calm expression had finally given to one of panic. And Pyrrha, through what the screen would show them, was just as horrified by what she'd done as the spectators by what she'd just done.

 _(meanwhile, undisclosed location in Vale, Tomura's POV)_

"I hate this part," Tomura muttered to himself as a black queen chess piece came onto the screen with a blood red background, cutting off the newsfeed of the battle that had just come to its rather startling conclusion. God, how much of a damn ego did this bitch have? If she was trying to sew fear into the populace, seeing Pyrrha rip that android to shreds should've been enough.

 _My Oum, just how sadistic can this bitch-_

A brief spark interrupted that never finished thought. Dabi stood next to him, staring a storm of daggers straight into the screen as he gripped his hands down in vices. His fists were lighting, only needing the slightest bit more encouragement to become fully encased in flame. And the color of his fire had changed drastically. Instead of the dark, shadowy tinted flames from every other time before, the sparks were a bright, vibrant blue, as were the color of the runes that dotted his scarred skin. He was angry.

 _… No. Angry's too weak of a word. This kid looks absolutely livid._

Dabi, his eyes still filled to the brim with rage, took a shaky breath as he demanded, "Tomura. Send me back to the coliseum once it's been emptied."

"That won't do, Dabi," Compress remarked with a chastising tone, seemingly unphased by the brutality that had just unfolded. "We need everyone we can to come with us in order to rescue Torchwick."

"I don't care."

"Dude, you're vital to this," Spinner objected. "If we don't get you on that ship before we can hit the bridge, we don't have enough firepower to-"

"I don't care."

"But Dabiiii, we were supposed to-"

"I don't care!" the sparks were turning into lines of flame. He was losing it. Shit.

"Now you listen here-"

"Hey!" Tomura yelled to the group. "Would you all shut the fuck up? Oum, I can't believe that _I'm_ the one who has to reign you all in."

 _ **" Now then,"**_ All for One's voice sounded throughout the room, silencing any would be objectors from speaking up any further. _**" What has you so distraught, Dabi? Will it hinder the plan?"**_

…

"... she's dead," Dabi said as he raised his sleeve to his eyes, catching the tears that had begun to roll down his cheeks. "She's dead. And I couldn't stop it. I... I have to go back. I can't just leave her like that. Not again. Not..."

It didn't take long for Tomura to put the rest of the pieces together. Whoever that android was, or had been based on, or however the hell she'd been made, had been important to him. Important enough that he'd ask to go back and bury what was left of her.

 _ **" It would appear that if he stays with you, he could be a liability on the mission. Are you willing to take that kind of risk, Tomura?"**_

There was a short silence before Tomura said, "Kurogiri, as soon as the coliseum's arena has been cleared of people, you're gonna let Dabi do what he's gotta do. Teleport him back to rendezvous point once he's done."

"But sir-"

"We can manage. Just be careful until we can get to the bridge," Tomura silenced Compress as he slipped on his dark grey trench coat that had just recently been covered with all the hands he'd so missed having, then slinging Oblivion's strap over his shoulder and allowing the sheathed weapon to come to rest at his left hip. "Dabi. If this goes wrong, and you're somehow captured or killed by Grimm, we can't help you."

"Don't need it," Dabi said as he leaned against the wall, suddenly finding himself fascinated with the crackling blue sparks of flame that danced their way from his fingertips to his palms and back again. He looked no calmer than before.

… he could use this.

 _(meanwhile, Amity Coliseum, Shoto's POV)_

Shoto made no move to see if Pyrrha was alright. Nor had any of the other hunters in training, for that matter. They were still reeling from the shock of it all. The speech by that woman over the broadcast certainly hadn't helped things. Everyone had been silent since it had ended. And then the warning sirens blared. Threat level nine. Second from the top. The first in over twenty years. Everyone who wasn't a hunter was scrambling for the exit, not wishing to stay and be turned into Grimm fodder, and even some of those who remained looked hesitant.

As if on cue, there came an echoing impact from overhead. And the telltale screech of what could only be an Elder Nevermore. Another impact, this one sharper, more deliberate, as it slammed the tip of its beak into the shield. _Now_ people were panicking, practically tripping over each other as they rushed towards the exits as quickly as their legs would allow them. The only ones who stayed in the arena were fellow hunters, who were either still in the same, ramrod state as before or hitting themselves against the barrier, trying to get in and get the red headed amazon out of there before the Nevermore broke through it first.

But still, with a sickening, booming shatter, the Nevermore finally broke through the outer shield, raising itself into the air to dive straight through the second one. Seeing that, Shoto threw all caution to the wind and immediately used his ice to freeze a portion of the energy shield in front of him and smashing an outline almost instantly to allow him access, sliding down to the area floor on a ramp that he created to get down there as fast as he could.

He heard Jaune and Tenya calling out as the inner shield finally failed, the gigantic bird monstrosity swooping upwards from the recoil and allowing the two of them to enter and try to get Pyrrha out of the line of fire. Despite everything that was happening, she hadn't moved a single inch, her glazed over emerald eyes transfixed on the unmoving, dismembered body and blades of her opponent. This wasn't the time to feel guilty, dammit! She was about to die!

Something that the red headed amazon still had yet to realize as the Nevermore landed with yet another echoing impact, the shockwave of which sent an unprepared Jaune and Tenya back several dozen feet as Pyrrha's were taken out from under her, sending her back far enough that they could support her as the wind wave ceased. Penny's body had been flung towards him, causing him to stop mid slide as he cushioned the landing. He knew how important she'd been to Ruby. They had to save what was left of her. She deserved so much more than that, but it was all they could do for her.

And then, unexpectedly, with a look of anger that far outshone that of even Yang's usual rages, was Ruby, and in her hand was one of the many discarded blades of Penny, currently digging itself up to the hilt into the chest of the again screeching Nevermore, this time in absolute pain. The rose themed huntress suddenly flipped backward, causing her boots to skid against the concrete of the arena floor when Shoto regained his composure, snapping himself to form and freezing the ground to speed himself towards where Tenya and Jaune were currently helping Pyrrha to her feet.

"Guys!" They heard a familiar blonde monkey faunus call to them. "Call down your lockers! Pin this sonofabitch!"

And that was exactly what they did, almost instantly whipping out the scrolls and setting the target destination onto the Nevermore. Shoto took special care to aim for the things head, even while it was moving. Thank you, Goodwitch, for showing how the rocket lockers could be used as fairly destructive air weapons.

And they proved to be quite effective as the Nevermore began to charge straight towards Ruby as she stared back with Penny's blade still in her grip, a loud landing noise echoing from the first three that had found their way to the Nevermore's still airborne body, followed by more and more until finally it came to a full stop at Ruby's feet, one final, halfhearted screech escaping its beak before two more lockers embedded themselves into its skull. His and Tenya's.

The lockers all hissed open individually, one after the other as the students who remained in the arena claimed them. The lockers on top of the Nevermore's head hissed open last, revealing Pride, which Tenya quickly claimed with a testing spin, and an empty one with the outlines of Jotunheim and Muspelheim still etched into it. A reminder of what he'd lost.

 _And a reminder to move onward._

Shoto snapped his fingers together quickly, the outline for a very rough, thick and jagged blade made of pure ice with a singular edge defining it as it curved back slightly. It had been a long time since he'd actually formed any constructs from his ice powers, but without the assistance of Jotunheim this was all he had. It was a crude construction that he could still remember from his childhood. He'd never imagined having to use it against Grimm of any kind. But right now, it was all he had.

 _Let's put it to good use._

 _(around the same time, Ozpin's office, Izuku's POV)_

Cinder had just stopped her speech to the world of Remnant, leaving all three occupants of the room speechless. No one moved. No one spoke. The only sounds that could be heard were then uneasy yet ever steady ticking of the gigantic clock gears beneath them. Ozpin faced the window of his office, looking out at the academy that he'd overseen for so incredibly long. So, it had come to this, had it?

Izuku shook himself out of his stunned stupor, telling himself that he'd have time to grieve later. He turned and began to make way for the stairs, Yang instantly understanding the risks and following him out before Ozpin said to them, "Students! Please, wait!"

"Sir, whoever took over that broadcast obviously had a plan. We need to get to the coliseum and stop whatever's happening!"

"And I can't just leave my team out there on their own! They need us, dammit!"

The second elevator suddenly slid open, allowing Qrow, Goodwitch, Aizawa and All Might to rush into the office with concerned expressions and holstered weapons. Before they could ask what the hell had just happened, Ozpin turned to them and ordered, "I need the three of you to get to the city! It cannot be allowed to fall! Aizawa, you need to get to Amity Coliseum and help with the evacuation effort in any way you can. And send Miss Nikos here as soon as possible. We're going to need her. Mr. Midoriya and Ms. Xiao Long, you'll be accompanying Aizawa until you reach the grounds. Once you're down there you'll need to gather whatever students you can find and deter any Grimm that might've made their way up from the Emerald Forest or Forever Fall." As he finished, several off-color Bullheads made their way past his window causing him to further continue, "If you come across any White Fang, do not hesitate to do whatever you must to survive. I sincerely hope you won't have to, but that's the situation we're being faced with."

The teachers all held uneasy looks across their features, especially at the prospect of leaving the school so vulnerable, and Izuku held little confidence in the possibility that he could be of any help in this situation, but Ozpin did his best to reassure them. "I know things seem bleak, and I'd hoped to never ask this of any of you, especially my own students, but we can still prevent further damage and save many lives. I'll do what I can to coordinate with any huntsmen I can reach, but right now you're all we've got! Now get going!"

As soon as the words left his lips, All Might rushed over to the entrance to a nearby balcony, calling to Qrow and Glynda, **"Climb on! It'll be a bit of a rush, but it's the fastest way to get to Vale right now!"**

The red-eyed reaper, though reluctantly, climbed onto the towering man's back, Goodwitch following suit almost immediately afterward. He and Izuku made eye contact for the briefest of fleeting moments, enough to know that this was going to be the hardest fight of their lives before the smiling giant took off and into the sky, a jet trail of steam lining his way as he continued on towards the currently panicking city.

"You two, stop gawking and get moving!" Aizawa said to them as he made his way for the doors, silently beckoning for them to follow him as he did so. Izuku pulled out his Scroll, as did Yang, as they tried to contact their respective teammates, trying to coordinate while they still knew communications were up.

The dial tone had barely been in his ear for a few measly seconds before Shoto picked up, saying, _"Are you alright?"_

"Yeah, we're fine. Is anyone injured?"

 _"As far as I can tell, no one's been seriously hurt. Most of the people we fought in the tournament are here, but I'm pretty sure that TAKT is down in Vale. Hopefully they can find Bakugo and back him up. I'm not entirely sure where Hitoshi is, but he and his team might be at the Fairgrounds."_

"Is Ruby with you?" Yang asked as she finished up her call with Blake.

 _"Yeah. She's actually the one leading the charge. But enough about that, where are you guys?"_

"On our way down to Beacon's grounds. We're gonna try to secure a safe zone and gather as many students as we can. Aizawa's gonna be making his way over to help evacuate the Coliseum. What's the situation?"

 _"Well-"_ a loud howl could be heard in a scratchy base tone over the call, along with several gunshots and the distinct sound of blades cutting and cleaving through flesh. _"-it would seem that the White Fang are releasing Grimm onto the Coliseum. Sorry, gotta handle this. Be safe!"_

That was all they heard over the line before Shoto's call cut off suddenly. The fighting over there had only just begun. And it was likely about to begin for them as well. They'd finally managed to reach the bottom of the stairs, Aizawa turned back to the two of them as he said, "I'll send Peach over to the docks in case anyone needs healing. Watch each other's backs, got it?"

"Yessir!" the two students synched, causing Aizawa to smirk ever so slightly before he ran off to find Peach and begin assisting with the evacuation.

Izuku and Yang practically burst through the doors with all haste, finding the courtyard in front of them filled to the brim with Grimm of several varieties and sizes. Beowolves howling to the moon, Creeps stalking through the panicking walkways, Ursa's roaring into the air with no sign of stopping their advance, and Griffons streaking into the cold, moonlit night.

"So, how do you wanna do this? Lemon Lime or Mighty Dragon?" Yang asked her green haired companion as Ember Celica shifted into its combat form, the brief loading of a shotgun shell echoing throughout the vicinity and catching the attention of some of the Grimm in front of them.

"Whichever one becomes appropriate," Izuku said as he drew Tempest from his back, the blade again early glowing in the silvery pale moonlight. This, while it produced no noise, caused even more Grimm to perk up, and a few to even scamper closer.

"You got it. Let's kick some monster ass!" Yang hollered as she and Izuku leapt into the Grimm horde with fire in their eyes, something that the Grimm, if they could feel something like fear, would've been terrified of.

 _(meanwhile, down in Vale, Bakugo's POV)_

Another explosion echoed throughout the street as Bakugo stood atop a pile of Grimm corpses with Smoke and Shrapnel painted with evaporating Grimm blood. Hah! Told her he'd drench them.

"Hey! Bakugo!" he heard a familiar Wolverine faunus call out to him as he and the rest of his team dealt with any stragglers left in his wake. Thank Oum he'd actually managed to come across any hunters at all. Still, they were doing a damn fine job of picking up his slack. If there was one team he'd want to be stuck with besides his and the other two he was familiar with, it would've certainly been these guys.

That being said, having to handle the bigger Grimm could be a hassle in its own right, as was proven when a particularly large Ursa made its way through the streets and straight for him. His hands arched their way into almost looking like claws as a few sparks cracked off his palms. "C'mon!"

"I am here!" they suddenly heard echoing throughout the sky, a large frame with a steam trail following him as he landed on top of the Ursa with a concave boom, the ground caving in response to the weight of the blow as the Grimm began to fade into ash. Hoping off of his back, and dispatching of any Grimm who were unfortunate enough to try and take advantage of their landing, was Goodwitch and another hunter he didn't recognize, though if the look in his eyes was anything to go by he wasn't someone to fuck with. Ever.

"Hey, it's All Might!" he heard Mina shout in excitement behind him as she stood atop another disintegrating Beowolf, confidence now reaching her eyes as he once shaky smile leveled out and widened, and Kirishima's grin had since returned to his face, and carried through on his attack as he clawed straight through a line of Creeps. Even the normally stoic Tokoyami and Tsuyu had perked up at the sight of him, rushing to assist their teammates as more Grimm began to swarm through.

"Bakugo!" Kirishima called out once more. "You need to get back to Beacon and get help! There are a bunch of hunters in the city, but we can't take them all!"

Bakugo grabbed a Creep from off of the ground and flung it into a crowd of unidentified Grimm, firing off his machine guns to shred them into mincemeat before responding, "Like fucking hell I'm gonna run away from this!"

"That's not what this is about. Ribbit!" Tsuyu backed her teammate as she wrapped some Creeps into a ball before pulling at her whip blades and watching the ashes fly. "The only one here who'd be fast enough to even have a chance of getting over there in time is you."

"I'd try to get over there and help you, but I'm having a bit of a hard time keeping a lid on Shadow," Tokoyami said, smiling through strained teeth as he let Shadow dispatch of even more enemy Grimm, a monstrous roar emerging from its large and currently enlarging mass. "We'll be fine, so get moving!"

"... if you all die while I'm gone, I'm gonna kick your asses!" Bakugo yelled over his shoulder, running straight for All Might as TAKT battled the Grimm that seemed to have no end with massive, undeterred smiles on their faces. If they were going down, they were gonna go down fighting, Oumdamnit!

"All Might!" he called to the smiling giant as the aforementioned man swung his fist straight through an incoming Griffon that almost instantaneously faded into ash. He asked in response, **"Young Bakugo? What do need?"**

"I need you to throw me towards Beacon."

 **"But-"**

"I don't like it either, but the airships are way too damn slow to make it over there in time, and we need back up over here! This is the fastest way!"

 **"Alright. You know how to redirect yourself in midair, correct?"** All Might asked as he lowered his hand, giving the ashen blonde direwolf a stepping stone.

"What do you think I've been trying to do all year?" he asked in response as he stepped onto the golden giant's hand, crouching lower in order to give himself even more momentum in the air. All Might lifted him, winded up behind his shoulder, and...

 **KRAKOOM!**

If the echoing of the throw wasn't enough to strike some fear into the Grimm, the strained yet stubborn look that was painted across Katsuki's face should've. The wind howled in his ears as the sounds of battle and chaos faded behind him, passing several Griffons and Lesser Nevermores on his way up before he finally managed to reach the apex of the throw in the middle of the sky. And for just a moment, so short that he wasn't even sure that it'd happened, it felt as though he was flying.

.

..

…

 _… wait, I'm supposed to be closer than this. Shit, did my gauntlets weigh me down?!_

Something that he thought of a bit too late as he began to plummet through the air, briefly flipping himself over and widening his limbs, managing to slow himself to the point that he could properly see everything. He knew that the distance to Beacon proper was too far to get there just by using his explosions, especially without shattering his own hands, so he'd have to find another way over there. Slow though they were, it seemed as though procuring a Bullhead was his only option. Now where to-

An Atlesian Warship whirred into view as it began to slowly crest towards Vale, sending out various Bullheads to head the reinforcement effort.

 _I'd be touched if their AK's were actually anything other than cannon fodder armed with toothpicks and peashooters._ Bakugo thought to himself as he repositioned himself into a dive, the howling of the wind filling his ears once more as he raced ever closer towards the top of the ship. Once he managed to get close enough, he righted himself in the air and started making several timed explosions to slow himself down enough that he wouldn't splatter against the ship on impact.

Even with the assistance of his explosions, however, he still landed on the ship with an echoing, metallic **CLANG!** as he dug the blades on Smoke and Shrapnel into the ship's hull, barely managing to find his balance on the rather windy platform. Then, overhead came an unusual ship. It was the same model as all the other that had departed towards Beacon and Vale, yet the texture of the hull was pretty different. It was a dull, dark violet with a distinct hum to that of the other bullheads, sounding almost like something demonic and Grimm-like. But emblazoned onto the side door, plain for all to see, was a symbol of the now defunct Creed of the Serpent, a cobra with fangs bared wide and a body coiled and ready to strike.

Bakugo knew that symbol, as well as its implications, and almost immediately trained his guns onto the hull of the ship as it landed, prepared to fire at anyone who emerged from that ship. No one who bore that brand could ever mean well. His family had learned that the hard way.

There was an audible hiss that came from the door as it opened with a slight emanation of steam, lifting to allow the only passenger of the ship to emerge. Dressed in a dark violet tailcoat with torn out sleeves, a skintight black t-shirt and baggy pants. His limbs were the most visually striking thing about him, however, as his head was entirely shaved with only bits of violet scales to decorate his otherwise unnotable appearance. They were prosthetics, with audible, smooth mechanical noises that had been spray painted a specific shade of blade and purple. His right hand was especially surprising, as it looked downright demonic with all the designs that he'd likely added to the arm itself.

And from that same prosthetic arm popped out a long, wicked looking chainsaw blade with serrated edges and a damn scary groan. And then, he spoke.

"Another traitor it seems. Oh well. I suppose we can't all be adherent to the cause."

And that groan got louder as the blade began to spin with all the silent fury of a man as depraved as Serpent Saw.

 **A/N: And that's the chapter! I'd originally planned on making it a lot longer than it was, but then I realized just how long I had to do this. Still, hope you enjoyed! Feel free to ask me any questions you might have concerning the story!**

 **Also, chapter uploads might be a bit slow from now on because I have college to attend to. I'm not gonna abandon this story, far from it, but the uploads are gonna be more spaced out than they were before. That being said, I hope you guys all stick around because we've got a hell of a long way to go! WOO!**

 **Next Chapter: Sep. 2nd or 9th depending on my workload**

 **Seeya in the next one!**


	39. Battle for Beacon

**A/N: You all knew this was coming. Hope you're ready for a bloodbath.**

 **Thank you all for everything. We're at over 300 reviews and over 400 followers now. Seriously, thank you all from the bottom of my heart. I hope you enjoy the chapter, brutal though it may be.**

 **Warning: Blood, gore, and plenty of violent descriptions ahead. View discretion is advised.**

 **Also, the review responses are going to be at the bottom of the chapter this time, because there are a lot of them.**

 **Disclaimer: I do not own RWBY or My Hero Academia. They belong to Monty Oum, Kohei Horikoshi, and their respective publishing companies. Please support the official releases.**

 **I do not own the cover image**

Chapter 39: Battle for Beacon

When Tenya first saw the ships begin to pass by as his half of the group began to make headway towards Vale, he paid them no mind. They were of Atlas make, unlike the ones that had dropped the Grimm into the Coliseum, and were making their way to assisting both areas of assault. Then another ship passed by. It wasn't an Atlas model, nor was it that of Vale's. The colors were especially off. Instead of the standard issue grey, like most of the other models had, this one was a dull, dark shade of purple.

He glanced towards the rest of the cabin, noting that most of the members of team SSSN, with the exception of their leader, as well as a faunus with a particularly large tail, a few other hunters in training whose names he couldn't remember dotting the seats as silence filled, the room.

Then, the crack of explosions ripped through the air. Familiar explosions, so faint that if he hadn't been hearing them for the past half year he'd have sworn he was imagining them. And they were coming from one of the Atlesian Warships.

That gave him all the reassurance he needed to follow through on what he was about to do next. He heard people from down below ask him just what the hell he was doing, but he kept climbing to the top of the ship. He narrowed his eyes onto the ship that he could hear the explosions echoing from, a standard Warship in every sense of the word. It was fairly far, too far for him to get there by normal means, and even with the assistance of Pride he wouldn't quite make it.

So, he pulled out another ammunition cartridge and loaded it into Pride, the mark emblazoned onto the side reminding him of just how powerful the kickback for this kind of ammunition was. He and Bakugo had been working on making it throughout the year, with many, many volatile reactions and many more dud bullets. However, this past week, with some input from Nora, they'd finally managed to find the right balance of Fire and Wind Dust and managed to make a total of five cartridges. In total, he had about thirty rounds of explosive ammo.

 _Let's just hope I have enough to make it all the way over to the ship._

The spectacled boy got back to the edge of the ship, as far as he could possibly go, and leaned into a starting stance. His semblance would hopefully get him at least partway there, and the explosive ammo would do the rest. After launching the only thing he'd really have to worry about was timing.

He leaned back a bit more, feeling his semblance charge within his legs in anticipation. Then he rushed forward, a dull boom echoing behind him as he raced towards the other end of the ship and, just as he got to the edge, jumped as high as he could in the air. He gave himself more air than he thought he would, but, as he'd predicted, it wasn't nearly enough to get him all the way over.

With practiced ease he extended Pride and pointed the barrel downwards, firing with the slight squeeze and being launched far higher than he'd predicted. He'd definitely be able to get over there now.

 _Hold on, you damn fool! I'm coming!_

 _(meanwhile, an Atlesian Warship, Bakugo's POV)_

Another explosion sent Bakugo sprawling away from where Serpent Saw had buried his weapon halfway into the hull, ripping it out as various electrical noises sparked from within and the overhead light flickered slightly. The scaled man was coming after Bakugo with no remorse, and he'd been on the defensive throughout most of the fight. Blasting his way down here wasn't something he was happy about, as his semblance was practically made for fighting out in the open, but it had saved him from getting run through by a fucking chainsaw, at least at that moment, and he'd prefer that it stayed that way.

"Come out. You're only delaying the inevitable," Serpent Saw said as the groan of his chainsaw arm dulled to the point that Bakugo could hear the gears slow. "I can still make your death quick, and quite painless. If you're willing to listen, however, there is another alternative.

"You could join me. While I am not normally partial to those who aren't willing to devote themselves wholeheartedly to our cause, I can see that in your eyes you hold similar contempt that I once did. How humans could get away with such dastardly acts, how they dared to act as though they were superior to us-"

It was in the middle of this speech that Bakugo, unbeknownst to the heavily armed man, managed to launch himself forwards with such momentum that his punch audibly cracked against his torso, the man's aura breaking with the contact as the ashen blonde direwolf then forced his weight into the punch with the assistance of an otherwise eardrum shattering explosion, sending Serpent Saw rocketing down the hallway as he tumbled across the ground, digging his prosthetic arm into the ground with a sickening, metallic screech as he brought himself to a halt.

Bakugo hardly even noticed the man's glare as he began a speech of his own, "You really outta know when to shut up and fight! I mean, seriously, a monologue?! We're on a battlefield, not in a lecture hall!

"Besides, do you really think that I'd actually join you? Fuck that! Spout all the radical bullshit you want to, but I'm not breaking! Ever! Yeah, humans can be assholes! Fact is, most of them are assholes! But I'd rather fight and die with assholes I respect than fight and live with psychopaths like you!"

The silence that came between the two as Bakugo finished his speech was unnatural, like the laws of physics themselves were bending to make that particular moment last far longer than it should've. The sounds of battle were white noise. The sounds of chaos were white noise. All that remained was the two of them.

And Serpent Saw laughed. A laugh that started as a chuckle as it built in volume, eventually turning itself into a full-on cackle. Then, Bakugo saw something disturbing. His scale patches began to grow, and spread throughout his body. Covering more and more portions of skin, progressing to the point that only the barest hints of skin were present at all.

 **"Wrong answer, kid,"** Serpent Saw said as he dug into his tailcoat side pocket, pulling out a distinctly marked Fang mask that was almost entirely purple with white detailing, which looked similar to the ones that Adam wore on his same mask. **"I tried to show you what was really happening. Truly I was. But now you've done something that no one's done in a long, long time. You made me angry.**

 **"And you never, ever make a Berserker angry if you know what's good for you."**

And the mask finally covered his face, lifting his head as it was to reveal a monstrous looking opponent, the chainsaw on his hand whirring to life once more. Bakugo, now shaken, lowered himself into a defensive stance. This was gonna be one hell of a fight.

 **CRACK!**

And from the hole the ashen blonde had made to get away stood Tenya with Pride at his side, having fired one of the explosive shots directly at the scaled man's feet and kicking up a large cloud of dust in the process. He leapt down the entry point and landed with a loud thud, visibly denting the steel where his feet were, Pride never losing focus on that dust cloud.

"The hell took you so long, four eyes?" Bakugo said, visibly easing back into his normal stance. Sure, he and Tenya didn't quite have the coordination skills that Deku and Half and Half did, but they were still a force to be reckoned with.

"I'm sorry that it takes a little while to launch myself off of a ship and by some miracle get over here without getting killed by Griffons and Lesser Nevermores!" the spectacled huntsman said without taking his eyes off of the billowing cloud in front of them.

"Excuses, excuses! Just get ready to fight and try not to die, dammit!" Bakugo said as he brandished the blades on the sides of Smoke and Shrapnel, the edges glinting in what moonlight managed to peek through the hole above them.

 **"... so, this is your true answer...**

 **"... then die for your betrayal."**

 _(meanwhile, Amity Coliseum, Dabi's POV)_

The echo of Dabi's boots against the cold concrete floor and the various cries of Grimm species that he couldn't differentiate were the only sounds that were still in the somehow floating arena. But he didn't care about that. All he cared about was finding her.

And he did. And what he found of her was the cloven pieces of her body, with wires and gizmos and metallic appendages exposed. Her eyes had never closed. The dark-haired boy leaned down to do just that, his skin touching hers for the first time since they'd met again. Her eyes closed.

But Dabi was not brought to peace. If anything, having to bury the only person he'd truly cared for since his mother died stoked the flames of his rage even further. And speaking of flames...

He pointed a single, scarred arm at a particularly large pack of Grimm that had begun to make their way towards them. His runes started to glow the same fluorescent blue as before, the barest wisps of blue fire emanating from his palm until finally-

 **BOOM!**

A tidal wave of colored flame was released, rushing forwards and almost instantly incinerating every Grimm in its path, the heat just as intense as the fire that emanated it. And as the fire crackled to sparks and embers, none of the Grimm remained. He was going to show Penny the respect she deserved.

No Grimm, no hunter, and no Cinder fucking Fall was going to keep him from doing that.

 _(meanwhile, somewhere at Beacon, Izuku's POV)_

Another Grimm fell to Tempest's edge, scattering into dust as a Creep took its place, quickly disposed of by that same weapon before he got off a shot with Stratus to take the legs out from under a Beowolf who'd been getting way too close to Yang's back, allowing her to blow the things head off and scatter it into ashes.

It had been like this for the past few minutes, with Grimm just coming and coming and not giving them a break. Still, the important thing was that he and Yang had each other's backs. He'd cover her, she'd save his life, so on and so forth.

The two stood back to back as more Grimm began to surround them. There were too many to deal with separately anymore. While it had been a while, it seemed that they would have to use those combo attacks sooner than they'd hoped to.

"Mighty Dragon?" Yang said as she caught her breath, the barrels of Ember Celica visibly smoking as she did so.

"Mighty Dragon," Izuku confirmed as he pulled Tempest into a Neben stance and Yang shifted into a stance that put her closer to the ground, the Grimm snarling and growling as the gathered ever closer to the two as they formed a circle to entrap them. Little did those creatures know that that was exactly what those two were planning on.

In a sequence so fast that the two looked like green and gold blurs, Izuku stabbed Tempest into the ground and lifted his body from the ground, feeling Yang's weight on his feet as he kicked upwards with both feet, sending her rocketing skywards as he came back down and quickly shifted Tempest into scythe mode, swiping at the Grimm that had begun their attack mid-transformation. He managed to catch plenty of them on the return stroke of the blade and dragging more and more with him as he sped around the circle until finally, he stopped, launching the Grimm he'd caught on the blade towards the center.

And then, from above, screaming a guttural war cry with all the air her lungs would allow her to expel, came Yang, her hair now ablaze and her eyes crimson red, delivering a punch to the ground that was so powerful that the Grimm beneath her fist almost instantly faded into ashes as the ground itself caved beneath the force, and what remaining Grimm were still around them were blown back several feet. The green haired inheritor himself was barely able to keep on his feet, his blazer audibly flapping in the wind as a result. And even in a moment as dire as this one, he couldn't help but think to himself that Yang looked absolutely beautiful.

But he'd have time to work out those feelings and thoughts later, as they now had the remaining Grimm to deal with. At least, they would if a few others hadn't taken care of the problem first. A familiar violet haired huntsman took the legs out from under one Grimm and slammed his fist into its skull, audibly cracking it before the beast faded to ash. His grinning partner jumped over him, his ribbon launchers wrapping around a Beowolf as he launched himself downwards, kicking the monster's skull so far back that bones could be heard snapping before it faded.

It was Hitoshi and Sero, both of whom looked a bit ragged but ready to fight.

"Hey. What the hell are you two just standing around for? C'mon!" Hitoshi said as he grabbed a Creep from the ground, killing it with a single punch.

"A lot of the others are already back at the courtyard! All we gotta do is get back there and pick up any stragglers we come across!" Sero said as he gave the two a shaky thumbs up. The two of them didn't hesitate for even a second to join them, gradually making their way to the courtyard and killing Grimm as they went, picking up a couple of students as they did so. For a brief, fleeting moment, it felt like everything was going to be alright.

 _(meanwhile, down in Vale, All Might's POV)_

 _Damnit. My form is going to start slipping sooner than I hoped it would._ The smiling giant thought to himself as his fist felled yet another Grimm with little effort. Despite his outward appearance, he knew that there wasn't much time left for him. This year had been a strenuous one, even by his normal standards of a tough year. He had thirty minutes, maybe an hour if he was extremely lucky.

A few AK units had picked him out and began firing at him, the bullets thudding into his aura before they dropped to the ground, harmlessly clattering against it. But before he could dispatch of the enemies themselves, loud, distinctly familiar shots rang out through the nearly empty and ruined street. And there stood, standing against his own soldiers and Grimm alike, was Ironwood, the top half of his uniform almost entirely ripped away in some kind of battle, his right, robotic side revealed to the world with his revolver in hand, firing shot after shot into the bodies of his enemies, taking one unlucky Ursa Minor by the skull and crushing it into dust with as much effort as it took to speak.

And coming from behind was a Griffon, one that he neither saw or heard, even with his enhancement's assistance. Qrow did see it, however, switching Harbinger straight into scythe mode as he ran towards it, slicing the thing clean in half with a single, well-placed strike. As he landed, he looked back at Ironwood with a cocky grin, something that All Might had come to associate with Qrow's confidence about something.

"I know you're not the reason behind this, Jimmy. I mean, seriously, I know you're strict, but I also know that even you're not crazy enough to try to pull off a full invasion of Vale. 'Sides, we need all the help we can get," Qrow said to the still stunned general as he gave a light twirl of his scythe, easily bisecting a pack of Creeps and Beowolves who'd gotten a bit too bold and had made their way towards them. The red-eyed reaper wasn't the number three huntsman for nothing.

Goodwitch quickly used some spare debris to skewer a few spare Grimm along her way over to him, saying, "If you two would kindly quit standing around, I believe we have a job to do."

All Might quickly made his way over to the three of them, asking, **"What's our plan of action? I know that the AK units aren't the most reliable, but there are still a lot of them."**

Ironwood breathed in a quick sigh and straightened himself, putting his revolver behind his back as he said to the three of them, "They were built with a specific programming flaw, titled 'Stormtrooper,' and no, I don't know why it was named that way. It's honestly one of the most absurd things I've ever heard or said. Anyway, it was meant to activate if the units were ever hacked by and hostile programs or coding, to deliberately make them unreliable against us. It wasn't quite perfected, and I don't think it's taken effect on all the units, but we'd be seeing a lot more casualties if it wasn't there. We should take advantage of this. Whoever's behind this went straight for Vale's CCT tower, and it might not be long until they break the programming. Right now, our primary concern should be getting back to my flagship. Every unit in my army has a direct link to the main console located there, so if the enemy wanted to take them over, that's where they'd be. After that, we need to secure a safe zone in Vale for any who might need it and then evacuate Beacon. Ozpin's students are tough. They can survive that long, hopefully."

"It's a solid plan, I'll say that much," Glynda said as he briefly flicked her wrist, causing a brief spark of energy to fire off, lift up a tiny sharpened chunk of shrapnel, and shoot it through a Creep's skull, all without even glancing at it. All Might could've sworn he saw Qrow shiver at that. Speaking of the red-eyed reaper-

"Yeah, but there's only one problem. We're the only real authority there is down here. Ozpin's trying to organize as many people as he can, but Scroll signals are total crap down here. Hell, most huntsmen who're even here are fighting for their lives already. We can't just up and leave. Besides, it's quite the walk to your ship. Sure you're up to it?"

Qrow pointed to somewhere in the sky, towards where Beacon was, his finger trained directly on the massive, unmistakable silhouette of Ironwood's flagship, which was currently raining fiery hell upon all the other ships in the area.

 **"Ironwood? Did you have Torchwick incarcerated on your flagship?"**

"Yes. And I can see now that that wasn't the best idea. I should've sent him straight to Atlas, but I know that he knew more than he was letting on. I decided it was worth the risk to keep him here."

"Hope hindsight's giving you a good kick in the ass, Jimmy, 'cause we've got work to do," Qrow said as he shifted Harbinger back into its blade mode, preparing to dispose of the Grimm that were currently making their way towards them.

And then, like the bleakness of a cold day at war, a thunderous boom echoed throughout the city. It shook the ground beneath them, causing all but he to stumble and almost lose their balance. They all knew what it was. It was something that he, along with his old friend, Flaming Rose, had sealed away years ago, unable to slay it. It had cost her an eye, but the seal should've held for an incredibly long time, more than enough time to find a way to end it permanently, and certainly far longer than just one and a half decades!

And yet, still, the mountain broke open. And from that break emerged a Grimm that he'd hoped to never see again. The destroyer of Mountain Glenn, one of the greatest foes that he had ever faced: The Ichor Dragon.

"Holy shit! That thing's free?!" Qrow exclaimed in surprise, something that All Might almost winced at. He and Flaming Rose had neglected to tell anyone else, save Ozpin and his council, that the Ichor Dragon hadn't been slain. Qrow was especially distraught at the revelation, seeing as he and Flaming Rose were former partners and practically family. He could only imagine the turmoil inside the red-eyed reaper's mind, but something kept him from fully acknowledging it. Something sick. Dark. So depraved that even the Ichor Dragon that it rode on was a mere fledgling compared to it. He knew it well. And it angered him. It had slain his master.

As the Ichor Dragon flew overhead with a thunderous roar, spewing its namesake every which way onto the ground as it did so, Grimm emerging from the pools it left, the presence left the Dragon's back and landed onto the ground lightly, with nary a sound. But his helmet, his suit, and his stance were unmistakable. It was him, injured though he was.

 **"ALL FOR ONE!"**

 _(meanwhile, Ironwood's flagship, Tomura's POV)_

 _Man, these guards are actually a bit competent. They can actually aim worth a damn._ Tomura noted as he crushed another Dust Crystal between his fingers, allowing his hand to bask in a darkened red glow before grasping the hilt of Oblivion, allowing the energy to spread into the blade to glow the same hue. He then dashed out of his cover behind the wall, slashing wildly at the guards who were pinning him, Spinner, and Twice down.

The energy from the blade rocketed forwards as manifestations fiery decay, practically burning through the air itself before they reached their targets. What blood that hadn't been vaporized on contact had been splattered against the walls of the ship like a fresh coat of paint, only outmatched by the agonizing screams that the guards let out before they died. There was an entire squad in there, totaling out to six unlucky soldiers, all of varying genders and skin tones, but all human. Not a single faunus. Honestly, it pissed Tomura off just the slightest bit. Why wouldn't they pull out all the stops for something like this? Hiring a couple faunus would've saved Atlas a lot of trouble and made this actually challenging.

Twice and Spinner crept out from behind their corner to see the damage that had been done. Tomura made a single sweep with Oblivion, cleaning it of the blood that would've otherwise stained the blade, sheathing it quickly at his side as he walked onwards, his hand covered trench coat audibly flapping behind him. The only giveaway as to his inner thoughts was the slightest scratch to his neck, something he'd only do sporadically if he got extremely pissed. Luckily, he was not, as it was only fleeting frustration at best, letting him go onwards with a particular hand still covering his face as it always did, paying no heed to the blood that his shoes trailed through.

"Wow! These guys were certainly clean," Twice yelled as he too paid no heed to the crimson on the walls. Maybe it was because he was insane, but he just seemed way too comfortable with all the blood.

Spinner stayed silent, though Tomura could certainly tell that this wasn't a pleasant sight for him. Kid would have to get used to it. The road to true change was a long and bloody one, and the only one that Tomura wanted to walk.

"That should be the last of the grunts. Let's get back to the bridge," Tomura said to the other two followed, then receiving a brief buzz on his scroll. He paused for a moment to take it out and see who the message was from. Unsurprisingly, it was from Neo. The contents of said text were what gave him a bit of fright.

 _This is that girl that Torchwick calls 'Red.' Can certainly see why he gave her the nickname, but... dammit, I thought her kind was supposed to be extinct._

He pocketed the device quickly, saying to the two following him, "C'mon. We've gotta get to the roof of the ship. Now."

"What about everyone else on the bridge?" Spinner asked.

"They'll be going up there too. Trust me, if this intruder is as strong as the old legends say her kind is, then we're in for a fight."

 _(about a minute later, the roof of the flagship, Neo's POV)_

 _Sorry, kid. This is as far as you're getting._ Neo said as she kicked the rose-themed girl away and towards Himiko, who made good use of the chain knives as she whipped and thrashed them around with ease, leaving several gashes in the metal below them and putting their opponent on the defensive. The two of them, in addition to Roman, were currently holding her at bay while the others took care of any Grimm that flew too close to the ship. Tomura, unlike the rest of them, was spectating the battle with a particular stare that made her feel uneasy.

She managed to push it to the back of her mind, however, and with a casual stride she began to twirl her parasol around her arm, winding up for a particularly powerful strike as Roman took over from Himiko and launched Melodic Cudgel at Ruby, hitting her in the nose before he used the hooked end to grab her scythe and use it as leverage to kick her in the chest, sending her rocketing towards her position. Neo then leapt into the air and gave Ruby yet another kick to the back, making her stumble and opening her up for another attack.

However, Ruby managed to use her scythe to launch herself away from the second kick, a large, concave marking left in the dull colored metal where she once stood. Damn, that girl was fast. It was getting very annoying.

The rose themed girl spun her scythe in a wild flurry of cracks and screeches, the metal beneath them becoming even further damaged as she forced Neo to step further back, almost backing into a Griffon that had somehow gotten onto their ship. This was quickly handled by Twice, however, who grew an extra clone to take the thing's head and snap it right off, giving the ice-cream loving teen a casual thumbs up at the end of it.

Neo didn't return it, however, seeing that Himiko was getting a crazy looking her eye and Roman had barely managed to sidestep one of Ruby's heavier swings. Seeing an opening, Neo managed to get in front of her uncle, sweeping her parasol upwards to meet her scythe with a loud impact, suddenly hooking it over and using it as a step to kick her straight in the face.

Ruby barely managed to right her balance and fire off a shot at her, a shot that she used her semblance to avoid, warping to the side as the glass shattered and Roman fired a flare from Melodic Cudgel, catching the girl in the face and sending her sprawling across the roof of the ship, only barely managing to catch herself with the edge of her scythe.

Roman walked over to her slowly, with a cocky saunter that she knew he only walked in when he was feeling overconfident. She couldn't blame him for feeling that way, though. They had some of the greatest criminals that they'd ever met on their side, and even better friends. If she were in his position, and she kind of was, she'd be feeling a similar kind of cockiness, but she'd long since learned to control those emotions. If only she could help Bakugo do the same.

 _Not important right now._ She thought to herself as she pushed those thoughts to the very back of her mind. This was not the time for distractions, no matter how appealing they might be.

"Little red, little red. You are just determined to be Vale's shining hero, aren't you? Well, I mean, the spot's technically taken, but you know what I mean, right?"

"What are you doing?!" Ruby yelled with rage-stricken eyes, ignoring his sarcastic question entirely as she continued, "If you take away these ships, the Grimm will destroy everything!"

"That's the idea!" Compress yelled out as he killed yet another batch of Lesser Nevermore. Honestly, they were even easier to kill than Creeps. _Creeps_. That was a low bar to clear.

"I mean, is that actually what you think we were going for? You're a genius!" Twice said in his iconic contrast sentence structure. Tomura, as before, simply watched. And waited. Like a wild tiger preparing to pounce on a kill. His gaze had never left the rose-themed girl, not once. The only other person she'd heard he gave this kind of look was some green haired kid who went against everything he believed in.

A sudden lurch threw Roman off balance, giving Ruby the chance to spring back up and take a shot at his back, but not before Neo once again got in her way. This time she used her naught and considerable strength to grab tightly onto the girl's scythe and smack her clear in the jaw with her parasol before using it as leverage to once more to send her sprawling towards Himiko. The weapon itself was pretty impractical, but it gave her a great weak point to exploit. Seriously, the rose-themed girl was making this way too easy. And she didn't feel like killing anybody today.

The half-faunus leapt forward blades in hand, wildly slashing out at Ruby before she overreached with one of her strikes and gave Ruby the chance to retreat to the edge of the ship, almost getting picked up by a Griffon in the process, before turning back and asking them, "But why?! Why would you try to do something like this?! What are you getting out of it?!"

"As much as I'd like to play twenty questions with you, red, you're just asking the wrong ones! It's not about what I've got to gain, it's that I can't afford to lose!" Roman yelled in response as his expression suddenly turned serious. Neo knew what he was referring to. While she didn't know the details, she did know that it had only taken one meeting with that Cinder bitch to ensure her uncle's allegiance, probably threatening her life in the process. Yeah, they were criminals, but she knew that they probably would've quit after another year or two, just long enough to secure their own livelihoods. That would've been it.

Ruby, her expression hardening, rushed forwards to meet them, allowing Neo to leap over her uncle's back and plant a double kick right on Crescent Rose, sending her back and letting Neo safely land and go in for a counterattack, hooking the end of her parasol around Cresent Rose's handle and tore it free of its owner's grasp, opening up her back for Himiko to follow up with a strong kick to the back. She really had been paying attention, then...

Roman capitalized on this, slamming the tip of Melodic Cudgel into the ground so that it could rocket forward and hit her right in the face, letting it flip over and back to him, using the momentum to take aim over his shoulder and fire another flare at the girl, hitting her in the chest. Her only saving grace had been that of her scythe, which had embedded itself on the side of the ship and allowed her to grab on and keep herself from falling to her death.

"I'm a gambling man, yeah, but even I know that there are some bets that you just can't take," Roman said as Himiko began to move closer, spinning her chains as she did so, the blades catching the metal beneath them and causing several uncomfortable groans and scratches. Neo made no move to stop her, though she moved closer alongside her uncle, the blade of her parasol finally laid bare as he backed Himiko up.

The two came to a stop at the edge of the ship, the others trailing behind them as they dealt with various Grimm that still strayed far too close. One of them got close enough to strike at Tomura, who hadn't even looked at the Grimm as he killed it with nary a thought and a gesture. Crescent Rose was embedded deeply into the metal and the ever-terrified girl hanging onto it. It almost reminded her of a particularly nasty experience down up in Mistral, her mind briefly flashing back to the chamber and... the chains... but she quickly pushed those thoughts away too, forcing her face to twist into a small smile before pointing her blade towards the girl's face. She would not allow herself to feel any kind of pity. Not for her.

"Like it or not, red, the people who hired me, Tomura's master, they're gonna change the world, whether we like it or not. You can't stop them, I can't stop them, no huntsman training with the best masters in the world could do it on their own, and even All Might himself couldn't stop them. All Might! If the strongest huntsman to ever live can't do it, then I seriously doubt that you can even attempt to stop them!

"And, well, you know that old saying. If you can't beat 'em-"

But Roman never finished his sentence, as Ruby had taken advantage of Neo's close proximity to reach for her parasol, opening it and letting it catch the wind and sending her tumbling off the side. She'd gotten careless, and now it was costing her. Why the hell had she even let the girl get that close in the first place? So stupid!

She was, however, saved from an untimely demise by Himiko, who'd leapt off the side almost as soon as she'd been thrown from the sip, one of her knives currently wrapped around her left boot as the other dug into the side of the ship, tethering the two of them in place as the half-faunus began to slowly but surely pull the two of them to safety. Her parasol, however, had been lost from her grasp, flipping and thrashing about in the open air until it was caught in a Griffon's feathers and carried off into the night, never to be seen again.

"I don't care what you say. I don't care if I can't stop them on my own, 'cause I'm not on my own. No matter how strong they are, we will stop them, and I'm gonna stop you!" the rose-themed girl yelled to her long-time opponent, a fierce glare in her now slightly glowing silver eyes, something that made Tomura subconsciously start, almost lunging at the girl before a sudden flash of white briefly sprung from her aura as she finished, "BET ON THAT!"

An echoing boom resounded through the air as she rocketed towards Roman, and Himiko, upon seeing this, started to pull on her chain even faster, trying to get Neo over to him before the girl did too much damage. Roman, however, looked absolutely furious, suddenly launching a flare from Melodic Cudgel, hooking it with the grip and of his cane, and throwing it straight at Ruby, catching her in the chest and sending her back again.

He rushed before she could fully recover her footing, managing to crack his cane against her stomach and launch a flare directly into her chest point-blank, sending her towards the bridge as the others watched in surprise. Roman had never shown this kind of combat aptitude outside of maybe the docks, and even then, his specialty wasn't close range fighting. And yet he tossed the red reaper around like a leaf in a storm. Neo's near-death had made him snap.

"I'll admit red! You've got spirit! But guess what?! This is the real fucking world!" Roman yelled as he batted her aside with Melodic Cudgel just as Neo and Himiko managed to get back onto the ship proper, seeing the situation unfolding and everyone else, now unburdened from the Grimm problem, take note of it as well.

And still, Roman continued, "The real world is cold, callous, and cruel!" punctuating every one of those c's with a hit from his cane. "The real world doesn't give a damn about spirit! All it cares about is what you're willing to do to achieve your goals! And you know what?! Most folks don't have what it takes! Why do you think the hunters are so few yet so powerful? Huh?! Ever think about that?!"

Ruby, seeing an opening in his stance, kicked one of Roman's shins, causing him to grunt in pain as he stumbled back, giving the rose-themed girl a chance to stand back up. And still, he continued, "You want to be a hero? Fine! Play the part, and then die a pointless, preventable death just like every other hunter unlucky enough to go out on a battlefield!

"In the meantime, I'll keep doing what I do best," Roman said as he walked back towards her, cane under his right arm, "Lie. Steal. Cheat!"

And as a particularly large Griffon that no one else saw bared down on him, Melodic Cudgel still under his arm, he reached into his jacket and pulled out a white and black, barebones standard issue pistol, whipping it right at the Grimm's eye, almost seeming to terrify it as he finally punctuated his speech, "AND SURVIVE!"

And then, a loud, poignant, and unique shot was fired from that gun, blasting out through the side of its skull as it dropped to the ground, beyond deceased. He looked down at the rose themed girl, saying to her, "What? You think this was the only weapon I had?" he gestured to Melodic Cudgel, which had never moved from its position under his arm. "Little red's still got a lot to learn, it seems!"

"And it also seems that you need to be more aware," Tomura chided his partner as he stood up and sheathed Oblivion, another two lesser but still considerably deadly Griffons bisecting as he did so. Ruby was now looking incredibly terrified, afraid of what might happen to her now that all the villains seemed to be closing in. Neo let herself feel a pang of sympathy for the girl. She'd know what this had felt like before. Even so, it was a pang, and nothing more. She didn't pity her. She didn't pity her. She didn't pity her.

So why was that fearful yet determined look resonating with her so much?! Why was it reminding her of Bakugo?!

"Master Tomura," a voice rang throughout the air, the iconic mist of Kurogiri suddenly filling and continuing, "We should leave. The ship has sustained quite a lot of damage. We have about a minute or so before it crashes."

"Damn," Tomura muttered under his breath. "Alright, everyone! We're clearing out!"

Taking his cue, Kurogiri widened into his portal form, allowing everyone present to slip through to safety. Ruby, conversely, ran in the opposite direction, towards her scythe, with rose petals flailing into the wind behind her as she dashed for it.

"Damn kid's gonna get herself killed," Roman muttered to himself as he too walked through Kurogiri with Himiko at his back, leaving her and Tomura the last two on the ship.

"Nah. She won't die. She's a hunter's kid. They're too stubborn to just lay down and die," Tomura muttered in response before he too walked through Kurogiri, leaving Neo to watch Ruby jump off the side of the ship with her scythe in hand as she used the bullets within to launch herself towards Beacon.

And with that final glance, Neo followed them, the dark gate the disappearing as it hurtled towards the earth at nigh incomprehensible speeds, already a flaming wreak before even an inch of metal had touched the ground. The flagship was down and done for.

 _(meanwhile, Beacon courtyard, Shoto's POV)_

The screeching of cut metal and the cries of Grimm of all varieties accompanied the battle that was ensuing in the inner courtyard, the students who could fight scattered, unorganized, and fighting to keep what little ground they'd managed to hold. He saw Flynt and Neon chasing down a pack of Creeps that had gotten far too close to the mass of students they were protecting, what remained of Team CFVY was defending Velvet's unconscious body, collapsing soon after revealing her trump card, Weiss was giving it her all, managing to summon an armored arm that looked similar to what early versions of Lancelot looked like, and the J and P of JNPR were nowhere to be seen, having disappeared somewhere in the middle of the fight while their teammates stayed and assisted where they could.

Sun suddenly flipped over his side and used his gunchucks to shrapnelize a Beowolf who'd gotten a bit too close for comfort, allowing him to take care of the currently roaring, and suddenly silent, Ursa. The fighting was starting to get to them all, him included, as evidenced by the gasping he had to partake in once he managed to stand up straight. Sun noticed this, asking the half and half leader, "Hey, you doing alright?"

"Yeah. I can keep going," Shoto said as his breathing steadied out, gripping his makeshift blade ever tighter as Sun nodded. Suddenly, and rather luckily, the AKs suddenly stopped stock still, looking like they had just been remotely shut off. And, with the sudden collapsing and dismantling of the units and a once charging Paladin, he was inclined to not ask too many questions.

Everyone else seemed to have the same idea, with Coco and her team getting Velvet to one of the walls and resting alongside her; Flynt and Neon, being less winded than the rest, kept guard while Ren and Nora caught their breath, and Team ABRN covered them in addition to their latter half while the former half stood at the ready.

Weiss was on her last legs of stamina, breathing heavily and only managing to barely support herself with her hands on her knees, Myrtenaster stabbed into the ground to further hold her weight. Shoto quickly made his way over to her with Sun on his heels, asking the white-haired heiress, "Do you need a minute?"

"No-" Weiss said before she stumbled forwards, Sun only barely managing to catch her by the shoulder before she would've tumbled to the ground.

"You sure about that?"

"I can keep going."

"And you will," Shoto said as he and Sun helped her over to a wall, leaning her against it and causing her to visibly to relax. "After you catch your breath. You're no good to anyone if you're dead on your feet."

"I suppose you have a point." Weiss relented. "How many?"

"We've got about twenty from Haven, ten from Shade, twenty-five from Atlas, and sixty from Beacon. That totals out to about a hundred twenty-five unarmed students. The rest have probably evacuated already," Sun responded, not wishing to acknowledge the other possibility. Not that Shoto could blame him. It was only just starting to hit him just how dire the situation actually was. But that could wait until later.

"But how are we supposed to get all of them over to the docks? I mean, yeah, the best fighters from the tournament are here, and we're armed, but I don't think it'll be easy to coordinate that many people."

"I think I could help with that."

The three turned to see a familiar yet surprisingly striking figure that was Hitoshi Shinso, his partner and several more students at his back. They were back from their patrol of the area, with two surprising additions to the roster.

"Izuku! Yang!" Shoto yelled, getting their attention as he made his way over to them. The green haired boy and the blonde brawler briefly perked up at hearing their names, the former turning and greeting him, "Shoto! What's the situation?"

"Well, the AKs have shut down, so we won't have to worry about them anymore. We're catching our breath right now, but we've got a lot of people here who're unarmed or otherwise unable to fight."

Sun then came over to the three, having heard part of Shoto's explanation, and further expanded, "We've been trying to work out a good way to the docks, but most of the ways there have been covered with Grimm. They were all covered before, but the ones that were blocked by AK units should be open now. All we'd really have to do is get them through one of those."

"Let me guess: the group's too big?" Yang asked.

"That's the only real linchpin in this plan, other than the fact that some of them are in shock. We've done what we can to keep them calm, which wasn't exactly easy given all the fighting, but they'll need to get to a hospital or at least have Peach see to them," Shoto answered.

"You rang?"

And yet again Shoto found himself turning to see Peach with her signature lab coat and neon orange hair, casually walking through a few still fading Grimm carcasses with Aizawa at her back, the latter of whom had a few large gashes in his outfit despite the lack of wounds. Damn, she really was good at her job.

"Well? Who's in shock?" Peach asked with an annoyed look on her face. "I'd rather not have to deal with any sudden seizures or brain deaths. I don't have the equipment for that."

"I can take you to them," Sun said as he began to lead Peach towards the mass of unarmed students, pointing out a few of them as she gathered them and started to do what she could to stabilize them further.

Aizawa then stepped forward with a serious look in his eye, saying based on what he'd heard, "Well, in the meantime, we're gonna have to split the group apart. Too many of them together could easily be sniffed out by Grimm, and we don't have enough people to protect them all on the move.

"So you guys would split as evenly as you could and go down different pathways, meet up at the outer courtyard and the make a beeline for the docks," Izuku thought aloud.

"Then two groups will take forty and one group will take forty-five. It's still a lot of people, but we'll still be a lot more hidden than we would be otherwise," Shoto said as he continued Izuku's train of thought.

"Okay, but I don't think there's nearly enough of us to cover that many people. I mean, at best it would be maybe three or four to a group, but-" Yang said before Aizawa interrupted her, raising his hand as he said, "You won't have to worry about that, Ms. Xiao Long. Peach and I will be taking the largest of the groups. The rest of you will be covering the other two groups."

"But sir-"

"We know the risks, and we're willing to take them. Combat might not be Peach's specialty, but I'd damn well bet on her in a straight fight. Don't take this the wrong way, but either one of us is worth at least ten of you on a _really_ bad day. It's basic math."

"That's not the problem though," Izuku said. "It's your fighting style. It's mostly suited to stealth and hit and run tactics. And that's not even mentioning the fact that you specialize in capture missions. It might lead to some... pretty bad results."

There was silence between their group for several seconds, all knowing just what the green haired inheritor was implying, even if he didn't voice it. The disheveled huntsman sighed, saying to his students, "Didn't I tell you all in class? You can't hope to be a huntsman if you've only got one trick. Otherwise, you die. Quickly."

And the silence returned as realized expression donned their faces, their teacher turning and calling Peach over before they began to organize a portion of the students for travel. Shoto, seeing their effort, snapped out of his stupor and said to the other two, "Alright. We'll have to split those of us who can fight down the middle so that we can cover all the groups evenly. We'll also have to balance our ranges and effective defenses, so-"

"Hey, Shoto?" Yang asked slowly. "Where's Blake? I thought she was here with you guys. What happened?"

The half and half leader looked about for her, finding that the raven-haired cat faunus was nowhere to be seen. Damn. He'd been so occupied with the fight and helping to keep everyone else alive that he'd lost track of her. Maybe someone had seen her go?

"Blake went that way, after a Beowolf Alpha," Weiss said, finally managing to stand herself up as she pointed towards the cafeteria, Myrtenaster buried tip-first in order to support her weight.

"Damn. Okay, you stay here in case Ruby shows up and get the students to the docks. Greenie? You okay with going after Blake?" Yang asked Izuku, who looked to be quite split on the decision. On the one hand, he probably did want to find Blake, but Shoto also knew that he wouldn't up and leave a hundred and twenty-five defenseless people to fend for themselves. Luckily, the latter part of that statement wasn't true in the slightest.

"Go with her," Shoto said, placing a reassuring hand on his partner's shoulder as he did so. "We'll get the rest to the docks. Just be careful, alright you guys?"

Izuku shook the hesitation from his eyes and nodded firmly, responding, "Okay. Try to keep everyone safe. And don't forget to-"

"I know, I know, I'll regulate it, now get going!" Shoto said as his partner followed the blonde brawler back into the depths of Beacon to find their currently missing friend.

"Okay... let's get them out of here."

 _(meanwhile, somewhere on the outskirts of Vale, Dabi's POV)_

The ground he dug was tough, bits of frost lining the soil biting into his bare hand as he continued to go downwards. But it barely registered. He moved almost robotically, digging deeper and deeper, so much that at one point he thought his fingers might've been bleeding. And still, he didn't care. He had to bury her.

Dabi stood from the hole he'd dug and lifted himself out, not bothering to even dust off his hands before he moved towards Penny's severed body, her two remaining blades off to the side. Gingerly, he placed his hand to her face, knowing that this would likely be the last he ever saw of her. He didn't want to say goodbye. It was too soon. He'd just found her again, and now he had to lay her to rest. It wasn't fair. It wasn't fair. It wasn't fair!

He quickly wiped the gathering tears from his eyes, steeling himself as he reached under the copper-haired girl's shoulders and lifted what was left of her body and placed her gently into the hole. He arranged her as neatly as he could, her strewn limbs made as right as he could make them without reattaching them. The bow in her hair was coming undone.

He grabbed an end of the pink ribbon and pulled it loose, letting it spread to its full length once again. How long had it been since he'd given it to her? A year? Two? He couldn't rightly remember at the moment. He wanted to. But he didn't.

Slowly, at a pace so slow it looked as though he were dead on his feet, he wrapped the ribbon around his right arm and tightened it. A memento. To remember her by. He reached out and grabbed one of Penny's swords, still elongated and still as sharp as ever, and placed it in her hands. A token of her bravery, if some afterlife that all those religions spouted about actually existed.

He lifted himself out of the grave, wiping more tears from his eyes as he did so, his face stoic and unmoving as he grabbed the other blade. It was like it's twin, oddly edged, sharp, with a hilt just long enough to fit a single hand. With an almost silent click, he had the blade flick itself closed, and sheathed it in the belt around his waist hidden by his jacket and more importantly, hidden from view. A reminder. To kill the people who did this. To kill the person who caused this. And so, as he put the soil atop his now dead friend, as he buried the only person in his life who could've been more than a friend, he muttered beneath his breath a promise that would define his life for years to come.

"Cinder Fall... as soon as I get the chance, I'm going to drive her sword straight through you twisted black heart, and laugh as you scream in agony. I will make you die the most painful death that I can imagine. No force on Remnant will stop me from killing you. No Grimm, no hunter, no lackey, and not even the gods themselves, if they even exist at all. I will give you hell. And if you decide to kill me first... well...

"I'll just have to drag you down with me."

 _(Neo's POV)_

 _Dabi's been over there for a while. Should I... no. I don't know him nearly well enough to help him out._ The ice cream loving teen thought to herself as she looked at her dark-haired associate, who sat motionless in front of a mound of dirt, the same way he'd been since they'd arrived there. No one said anything about it, but they all knew what it was. Dabi had made someone's grave. A deep, deep grave. To make sure the Grimm wouldn't dig up the corpse right away. It was standard procedure for most respectful burials, and why tombs and morgues were so common around Remnant. No one wanted the dead desecrated by those who were less than human. At least, most people.

Neo then felt a tap on her shoulder, causing her to turn and face her uncle, who had a serious look in his eyes. After a few seconds of silence between them, the hat-wearing thief said to her, "I need to tell you a few things. And show you something. Okay?"

Neo gave a slow nod, hesitant to pursue this conversation in spite of her own curiosity. Still, the two sat down on a wide, recently cut down tree, courtesy of Spinner and Tomura, and Roman began to talk.

"I know that we've been doing the crime thing for a pretty long while now. First it was to get you help, then it was to get out of debt, and after that it was to just secure our livelihoods. And it's been pretty entertaining, last five years especially. But... I never expected to get into something like this. And you know that this was supposed to be our last year. Pull off a big heist, go out with a bang, then disappear like dust on the wind. But... Neo, I need you to understand that you can't come with us. It's not that I don't want you to come, because I do. I really, really do. But these people... they're dangerous. Dangerous than all our other partners combined. Hell, they're probably more dangerous than Thoth himself. And I don't want to drag you down any deeper into this than I already have. I know you care about them, and I know they care about you too. But you can't come with. It's not because I don't have confidence in your abilities. Putting you further down a path like this... I'm scared of what it might do to you.

"And that's why... I think it's time I gave you this," Roman said as he reached into his jacket and slowly pulled a worn, water stained paper envelope with a wax seal, the marking for which had partially been rubbed away from all the apparent years of wear. And if the back of the letter was to be believed, it was addressed to her in familiar cursive. Cursive that she hadn't seen in years... and brought tears to her eyes...

 _Mom..._

Roman hugged his niece around the shoulder and lending her his shoulder to cry into, to which she gladly obliged. She was shaking. He hadn't felt her cry to the point of shaking in literal years. Over a decade, in fact. It was something he'd hoped to never have to see again, but he couldn't keep this from her any longer. She deserved to know.

A few minutes passed before the tears stopped and Neo stopped shaking, distancing herself from her uncle's shoulder in order to wipe her eyes and regain what little of her composure she could. Roman continued, though hesitantly, "She gave me that letter before she died. I think she wanted you to look for your ancestors. She never said who they were, but she did remember where they were from. A desert that houses Dust blacker than the night sky. And... well, to my naught and considerable knowledge, there's only one place on Remnant that has those requirements...

"You know how to find it, and you know how to get there," Roman said as Neo stared at the letter without blinking, trying to encapture everything she'd forgotten about her mother from the one, simple word she'd written onto the back of an old envelope. She didn't remember much about her mother. Only that she was kind, and that Neo cared about her more than anything else in the world. But that was before... the room...

Roman, seeing the gears turn in his niece's head, tapped her shoulder again, bringing her out of her thoughts as he cleared his throat before continuing on, "I have something else to give you." And then, lifted straight from his hands and placed into hers, was Melodic Cudgel in all its fiery glory. It was a bit long for her, and a bit heavy as well, but Roman had taught her to fight with a weapon that was very similar to this in make. And this small gesture meant so much to her. She almost teared up again.

"You're gonna need something to defend yourself, and I don't think that we're gonna see that parasol of yours anytime soon. But don't you worry about me. I've got my backup pistols, after all," Roman said as he pulled out said weapons from his jacket, the one in his left being the same one as before; white and black, whereas the one in his right was oppositely colored; black and white. Ironically named Lux and Umbra respectively. "Man, it's been a while since I've used these things for real-"

He was interrupted yet again by his niece, who was currently burying her face into his side with her arms wrapped around his lower torso tightly with his cane still between her arms. It was uncomfortable, but... she wouldn't see him again for a very long time, if ever. So he placed his arm on her shoulder gently to steady her, and let her have her moment.

She let go slowly, wiped her eyes of tears once more, and smiled. It wasn't anything grand, hardly even noticeable, but it was there. She brought out her scroll, and with shaking fingers wrote out five heartfelt, meaningful words of trust.

 _"Thank you for everything. Goodbye."_

And then, as quickly as she turned around, her figure shattered into a thousand tiny, uncountable shards that drifted on the breeze before they were taken by a more powerful gust and thrown towards the sky, blending in with the myriad of stars above them as Neo disappeared. Dust on the wind. Just like he'd always promised.

 _(meanwhile, Beacon Vault, Jaune's POV)_

"It's... a type of vault," Pyrrha said as they rushed towards the far end of the towering, mightily constructed hall of stone slate with Pzin in front of him, his expression more desperate than anything he'd ever seen the old man give with Lancelot's helmet floating at a steady pace next to them, a trail of white mist left in his wake.

 _ **"Hmm... master Jaune."**_

 _"Yeah? What is it?"_

 _ **"There is something powerful down in this place. Something old. Be cautious as we proceed. I don't know if we can handle what is hidden here."**_

"Alright, but what would this school even have to... hide..." Jaune stopped mid-stride as they finally came upon the contraption that they'd been running towards, with two human-sized pods and several wires connected every which way, all of them large and seeming incredibly important.

He then saw Pyrrha and Ozpin approach one of the pods, the empty one on his right, the one to the left currently occupied by a woman with lightly tanned skin and chestnut brown hair. Jaune then asked with confusion in his eyes, "What... what the hell is that thing?"

"... Jaune-"

"Pyrrha! Get to the pods," Ozpin practically ordered with haste in his voice. What the hell was happening? He'd never heard the headmaster like this before, even during the few times he'd ever been frustrated or angry.

The red-headed amazon in question, after a few seconds of hesitation, complied with his request, moving closer to the empty pods as the gray-haired headmaster addressed the blonde knight, saying, "Mr. Arc, if you would like to help with this, please stand guard for us. I need to make sure the procedure works correctly."

Jaune said nothing to the headmaster, only giving him a firm nod as he turned and got down onto a single knee, expanding Crocea Mors' shield with the blade still housed within, pieces of white armor emanating from his body until they eventually found structure and formed the complete and towering body that was Lancelot. Yet despite his concentration on the task in front of him, he could still hear Ozpin's response to Pyrrha's question.

"We... do nothing," the headmaster said as the glass was opened with a hiss, then continuing, "You, Ms. Nikos, have a choice to make."

 _(meanwhile, the Atleasian Warship, Bakugo's POV)_

Damnit all, Bakugo thought to himself as he laid helpless in the crater on the wall, his nerves still in shock from the particularly nasty blow that Serpent Saw had given to him. Despite his and Tenya's best efforts, they were nowhere near prepared for an opponent of this level of skill. They threw everything they had at that bastard. Explosive rounds, grenades that he'd been keeping on hand for a special occasion, Tenya had used a Burst, and he'd been knocked out of the air when he tried to get off a Howitzer Impact. This man... no, this thing was nothing like Stain. Stain had been overwhelmed and given no time to properly organize. Serpent Saw was angry, and whatever the hell this Berserker thing was that he was using was giving him a serious edge. Add that to the fact that he still had a semblance of control despite his angrier nature and you had one great killing machine.

In layman's terms: they were fucked, fucked, FUCKED, and they needed to get the hell out of there.

 **"Now, repent for your sins, human,"** Serpent Saw said as he raised his arm overhead, the saw attached to it buzzing to life once more as Tenya, despite his best efforts, laid beneath the man's heavy prosthetic leg, his chest pressed against the cold metal surface of the floor, and visibly dented where he laid. And despite the glare he was giving the man, Serpent Saw didn't stop.

 **"Repent... with your pride."**

And he lowered the saw to Tenya's legs, the squelching sound of flesh being rent and severed filling the air to accompany Tenya's scream, a torrent of blood erupting from the wound and coating Serpent Saw with a splatter of red. And he didn't stop.

"TENYA!" Bakugo yelled as he tried his damnedest to lift his body, feeling his limbs begin to move bit by bit, inch by bit before finally...

The world went red.

 _(meanwhile, Beacon Vault, Jaune's POV)_

The impact of an arrow, the gasp of air from a woman he never knew, and cracking of glass was all he heard in that moment. Yet he knew that something had gone incredibly irreversibly wrong. There stood at the entrance to the Vault a woman, one he'd seen participating the tournament earlier, with glowing amber eyes and lifting herself into the air with some newly found power, audibly humming as she did so.

And all Jaune could think to do at that moment, his mind filled with rage, was charge at her, ignoring the pleas of both Ozpin and Lancelot as his blade crackled to life, electricity sparking up and down the blade as he swung straight at her.

And was blown back as casually as one would swat a bug.

Lancelot dug his armored hand into the ground to slow their momentum, stopping near Ozpin as Pyrrha leapt from the pod, only the stopped by the headmaster as he ordered, "Take Jaune and get out of here. Find Glynda, Qrow, Ironwood, anyone you can! The tower must not fall."

"But we can help!" Pyrrha exclaimed as Jaune rose to his feet.

Ozpin looked back at the red-headed amazon and, with an unmoving gaze, told them, "You'll only get in the way."

Her eyes widened, realizing what Ozpin was trying to do. She nodded in response, though shakily, rushing towards the blonde knight and dragging him behind her before they rushed down the hall, a spare glance from Cinder the only recognition the two received.

 _(Ozpin's POV)_

 _Damnit. I thought we would have more time than this._ Ozpin thought as he readied himself for what might very well be the last fight of his life. He didn't know this woman beyond the fact that she was definitely Autumn's assailant and now the full Fall Maiden. She wasn't someone to be trifled with. He hoped he could live through this so that he could investigate her properly. And Midoriya seemed like he had something to show him before all of this went down. Maybe this was part of it?

"This entire time... right beneath our feet. No wonder I couldn't sense it, all the way down here.

"She was right about you," the woman said with a hateful glare, Ozpin flipping his cane into his combat stance in response. "Such arrogance."

The quiet that ensued between the long seconds was deafening. Unbreaking. And it seemed to go on forever.

But all things come to an end.

 _(meanwhile, somewhere in Beacon, Izuku's POV)_

"Blake! Where are you?!"

"Blake!" They called out to the cat faunus to no avail, the Grimm, The White Fang, and the flames around them growing thicker as the traversed the once peaceful walkways of their school. Things were going to hell, fast, and there was nothing they could do but survive, and help anyone they could find.

And then, a pained scream rang from within the cafeteria, causing the blazer-wearing boy and the blonde brawler to turn within and find Adam standing over Blake with his blade in her stomach, pulling it out as the girl continued to scream in agony.

As quickly as they'd seen it, Yang launched herself faster than Izuku could react, her eyes a glowing crimson and her hair now alight as she rocketed towards Adam with her right fist cocked back in what would be a devastating, Aura breaking punch.

At least that's what should've happened.

Instead, Adam simply sheathed his red blade, holding it gingerly as she came towards him with all the rage of a thousand suns. And just as gingerly, he pulled the blade free with only the slightest rasp of the sheath, slashing it outwards with such speeds that Izuku barely even saw the stroke that... that...

Yang fell to the ground in a heap, her Aura almost immediately broken by the strike and her arm now severed from her, a glowing yellow stump all that remained attached to her shoulder. The shock hit Izuku like a train. He couldn't move, he couldn't speak, for a few seconds he might've even forgotten how to breathe. Adam Taurus had just defeated Yang Xiao Long, one of the most powerful fighters he knew and one who could easily go toe to toe with Pyrrha and Shoto. How was he supposed to fight that?

The shock didn't last, however, as he saw Blake put herself in front of Yang's body, attempting to shield her from what Adam was about to finish. And he rose his crimson blade once more...

… but it never laid its edge on either of them.

Izuku, with green energy crackling through his body, his markings glowing as brightly as the stars that still dotted the sky, his sclera as black as the shadows of the moon while his eyes flared a deep, fluorescent green, clenched his right fist as tightly as he could and aimed it straight towards Adam's chest. With a cavernous boom and all the strength that he could muster, he put all his weight into the strike as he yelled with rage and fury seeping from his voice, **"DIIIIIIIIIIIIE!"**

And the crimson haired bull faunus was flung from where he stood, crashing through the wall of the cafeteria as the flames around Izuku flickered and sputtered from the force of the blow. He relaxed back into his normal stance slowly, like using that much force was almost painful, but he still pushed on.

But just as he was about to turn and make sure Blake and Yang were truly unharmed, Process flared up again, this time for even longer than usual. Through the haze and the now greying fires, he saw a deep, bloody red aura. It was harrowing. And it was demonic. Adam was still there. He was nowhere near done. He'd come back. He'd...

… someone had to hold him off.

Izuku reached over his shoulder to grab Tempest's handle, the iconic snap off the magnetic holster echoing throughout the space as the blade began to charge with the amount of Aura he was generating, suddenly seeming to glow as he held it tightly in his right hand, saying to the conscious of the two behind him, "Blake... get Yang out of here as fast as you can."

"What-"

"Blake, we don't have time to argue about this. Adam's still alive, and chances are he's not gonna stop until he finds you and kills you. Yang's injured badly, and neither of us have medical training beyond first aid. Get her to Peach as fast as you can. I'll hold off Adam for as long as I can."

"Don't phrase it like that. You're making it sound like you're not coming back."

"... I can't promise I will. What I _can_ promise is that I will buy you as much time as I can damn well give you. Now move, dammit! Before he gets back up!"

"You'd better make it back!" he heard the raven-haired cat faunus yell over her shoulder as she carried the blonde brawler as quickly as she could with her towards the docks. Out of the corner of his eye, Izuku could've sworn that he saw tears escape Yang's closed eyes.

But he stopped himself from following them outright, shifting his half mask onto the lower part of his face as he began to channel his maximum output for combat Full Cowl: 13%. Glancing downwards, he saw the severed right arm of the blonde brawler next to his feet, still there. He plucked it from the ground and holstered it under his blazer. If he managed to get out of this alive, he would get it to Yang as quickly as he could.

And Adam then emerged from the wreckage of Izuku's attack and the flames of destruction that he and his group had wrought, his clothing only minorly scraped and scuffed, twirling his blade in a full circle before maintaining a tight grip in the hilt.

"You dare to stand in my way, human?"

Izuku didn't respond, only shifting further into a new stance that Qrow had begun to teach him. His blade was behind him and held in a dexterous grip, his left arm only outstretched the slightest bit with his body shifted sideways to make himself a smaller target, his knees bent and feet evenly spread apart. He glared at Adam with all the rage in his heart, simmering with the glow of energy sparking across his body. He was ready to fight.

"... very well. If you will not move...

"... you shall _be_ moved."

 **A/N: Oh god, I think this just might be the longest chapter that I've ever written. I actually had a lot of fun writing this despite the brutality of it all. If you want to know where I got the inspiration for said brutality: Fate/Zero. I was watching that show as I was writing this, and I was blown away by just how good it was. If you can get past the awkward dialogue from the first fourth of episode one. Also, if you have any plans to watch it, I'll warn you now, it is dark, dark, DARK. I'm not kidding. If you're sensitive to brutal stuff, blood, gore, any of that stuff, I don't recommend you watch this if you don't want to puke or something. However, if you're alright with that kind of stuff, have a blast! And I highly recommend that you watch the sequel, Fate/Stay Night Unlimited Blade Works, afterwards. I'm doing that right now.**

 **And now, the review responses:**

 **Kaiser Dragon: Yep. I hope you weren't too disappointed by how it turned out. As much as I might've wanted that, it didn't seem appropriate for the situation at hand.**

 **Odin's Eye: Thank you, Allfather! Let this war echo through the annals of Remnant's history as one of the greatest ever fought! And I hope Valhalla treats Penny well.**

 **Dreamweaver543: I've actually got a bit to say about requests and stuff. Join me at the bottom of the Review Responses.**

 **KingKong94: Yes. Yes, it was.**

 **And now, a response to these awesome and incredibly imaginative people:**

 **Black Fang, Midgarsomr Jr, and Thunder Dragon:**

 **First of all, I'd like to say thank you. Thank you all for having the confidence to share with me these wonderful and unique ideas that I honestly probably couldn't do justice even if I tried my damnedest. We're lucky to have barnstormers like you guys on this site, and you're all truly awesome.**

 **Now, if you're feeling as though there'll be a bad part to this response, it's because there is. Unfortunately, to my eternal dismay, there are several factors that would keep me from working on these ideas. The first being this:**

 **For those of you who don't know, I recently started my first year of college. It's going on week three and I have the feeling that I'm going to be swamped with work pretty soon. That'll slow down updates a bit. Speaking of:**

 **Secondly, I've got this story to write. Not that I wouldn't want a bit of a break from it, but I really want to get this out of the way before I do anything else. And with the outlines I've got for future chapters and arcs, that might not be for a long while.**

 **Thirdly, I have some ideas of my own for what I might want to do when this story finishes up. Now don't misread me on this, I think that your ideas are far more amazing than what I have half-formed in my mind. But I don't really think I'd be a good match for them. I wouldn't be able to do the ideas the justice they deserve.**

 **I would, however, with your permission, be willing to post the ideas here on my story page to spread the word to other people who might take these ideas up. And who knows, one day I might come back to this stuff and take a crack at one or two of them, hopefully when my writing style has improved and had all the kinks ironed out.**

 **And concerning all future recommendations and story ideas: I will take them under consideration, but that won't confirm that I'll be able to write them, either now or in the future. I will also post all future recommendations, with the creator's permission, on my story page to spread the word. I haven't really been that involved in the community side of things on this site, and I don't plan to anytime soon, but I do hope that this clarifies things. I'm sorry if you were at all disappointed, but that's just how it is right now. I hope that you guys eventually get these ideas written because seriously, these are freaking amazing!**

 **Next Chapter: Sep 30th**

 **Seeya in the next one!**


	40. You're Next

**A/N: Over 400 Favorites?! We're on a roll! Thank you all so much for everything! I hope you enjoy! Fair warning, this chapter is quite literally almost nothing but fight scenes. Hope you're in for a crazy ride.**

 **Also, there's now another crossover story like this by The Inkasters called My Huntsman Academia. I recommend it, it's a good read.**

 **Disclaimer: I do not own RWBY or My Hero Academia. They belong to Monty Oum, Kohei Horikoshi, and their respective publishing companies. Please support the official releases.**

 **I do not own the cover image**

Chapter 40: You're Next

 **(A/N: I May Fall by Jeff Williams)**

Izuku and Adam began to circle each other with unyielding glares, their steps inaudible through all the fire and rubble around them. Tempest still glowed ever bright from the energy its master was producing, while Adam still held his own crimson blade in a loose yet ready grip. The silence passed for a few aching moments...

… then they charged.

Their blades met with an echoing clash, the edges giving a metallic screech as they pushed against each other, Izuku's now held with both hands and Adam's still held loose. The two then separated as Adam took the offensive, slashing out towards Izuku's exposed left flank, the green haired inheritor dodging the blow by mere inches before trying to take a swing at Adam with only one hand, only to be blocked by the man's surprisingly durable sheath.

Izuku than used Cirrus to launch himself into the air and gain some momentum, managing to shift gravity into his favor as he used Stratus to launch himself downwards, causing sparks to fly and almost managing to get in a strike. Adam noticed this plan, however, sidestepping the blow and letting Tempest bury itself halfway into the ground before pirouetting and managing to catch Izuku in the back with a blast from his sheath turned shotgun.

The green haired inheritor managed to hold onto the hilt of Tempest to avoid being flung into the rubble, bringing it out of the ground to counter another strike that again echoed throughout the crumbling battleground, this one far stronger than the one that he'd used in the clash. Had he been holding back? Was he still holding back?

Adam gave him no further time to think, however, managing to get off yet another shot with his shotgun into his side, making Izuku stumble, allowing him to capitalize on his weak point and trip him with a well-placed step, sending the green haired inheritor to the ground and giving the crimson haired bull faunus a chance to attempt a final blow. It missed, however, as Izuku had used his boots to propel himself away and get himself to his feet again.

A plan forming in his mind, Izuku leapt into the air once more, this time grabbing onto one of the few banner poles that were still intact and staying where the smoke from the fires was the worst, his half mask the only thing that was allowing him to breathe at all through the haze. Maybe he could get the drop on Adam. Granted, it could fail, but it was the best he had, and he had a backup in case that failed too.

Stabbing Tempest into the wall and using it as a leverage point, the green haired inheritor snapped off the banner pole he'd previously stood on, gripping it tightly before poking his head out of the smoke, getting a line of sight on Adam, and throwing the pole straight towards him as hard as he possibly could.

The bull faunus saw this almost immediately, slicing the object clean through the center, not noticing Izuku using the distraction he'd created to angle himself just right for a back strike, launching off the wall and pieces of the rubble and catching his mark long before Adam had a chance to react, the bull faunus grunting and stumbling forwards as a result of the impact. Holy crap, it worked. Alright, now capitalize on it!

Izuku leapt into the air in a side flip, using Stratus to hit Adam across the back of the head, then attempting to follow through with his momentum and hit him straight in the sternum with Cirrus, only to be blocked by his sheath with a loud, booming crack. What was with this guy?!

Adam brought his blade to bare once more, causing Izuku to quickly jump back into a defensive stance yet again as they clashed for the third time, the green haired inheritor gritting his teeth with effort while the crimson haired bull faunus did the same, though out of frustration rather than effort of any sort. He didn't have anything to gauge his aura with, but he knew that he wouldn't last against Adam for much longer.

Deciding to take the risk, Izuku leapt back from the clash yet again, beginning Tempest's transformation and managing to hook the curving blade around Adam's sword, preventing him from escaping and giving him a leverage point to raise himself and kick the bull faunus square in the face as the handle began to extend. But he didn't get away unscathed, as Adam managed to get off a few shots as a reaction to his attack, and giving Izuku enough momentum to get to the far end of Tempest's now extended handle.

The green haired inheritor then began a series of buzzsaw arcs and overhead swings, all piled with as much power and force as he could place behind them. With sounds of rushing wind and the distinct impact of clashing metal rang throughout the air and filled his ears as he did his damnedest to place Adam as far into the defensive as he possibly could, his eyes beginning to glow even brighter as he charged Tempest further, readying himself for his most powerful attack. With a mad, blindingly fast flurry of blows, Izuku pulled back Tempest and yelled out the technique with all the air he still held in his lungs.

 **"CYCLONE-"**

 **(A/N: Pause the song)**

But he never released the strike. A myriad of crimson red slashes filled his vision in an instant, remaining for several, achingly long seconds as Adam stood from his once defensive position on the ground. He held a stoic line across his lips, the mask giving away no hint as to his true thoughts at that moment. But Izuku could feel his eyes on him. His cold, battle-hardened, unmoving eyes.

"You've done well to last this long, human. Truly. You're the first person in years who's ever made me use this technique. I underestimated you. To correct that mistake, you shall die a quick death. How much pain you receive is up to whether or not you're unwilling to die. So bleed, human," Adam said to him as he began to sheathe his blade, and for the slightest moment, Izuku could see Vacuean runes similar to Tempest's lining the length of the blade. His weapon... it was-

Then, Adam named his deadly strike.

"Wilting Blade, Blushing Torrent."

And pain filled his senses. It was all he could feel, all he could make sense of. He could feel his blood come out in waves, and through the several dozen slashes, there were two distinct cuts that made their marks diagonally across both the front of this chest and his face, oppositely aligned, but still more painful than all the other, insignificant ones. His body gave out, finally crashing to the floor in a heap as the blood began to pool around him, and...

… Tempest had been shattered. The hilt had collapsed into itself from the force of Adam's technique, folding down to the blade's hilt and landing just shy of his right forearm. But that wasn't important. The blade had been shattered to shards and bits, slowly descending from their place in the air and hitting the ground with the almost inaudible sounds of glass hitting the ground, a few shards even floating in the still pooling crimson.

Then, his vision, slowly but surely, faded to white.

…

 _"… hey, kid."_

"... who..." Izuku's vision still hadn't come back entirely, but he could see someone standing in front him, offering a hand towards to him. He knew he was standing, if the fact that he was standing instead of bleeding on the ground in a heap was any evidence, but where he was greatly surprised him. The ever-expanding sands and similarly borderless ocean behind the woman, who still wasn't quite in focus, were a dead giveaway. He was back to the same place that he'd seen only twice before. The representations of his soul and One for All.

The woman regained his attention as she spoke, _"Who I am isn't really important right now. What's important is that we don't have very long before you die. Time might be pretty screwy here, but make no mistake, you're gonna die soon. But we can help you. I've talked with the others, and they've agreed to do everything we can to help you, just this once. But you've gotta accept out help. I'd rather not force this on you, so..._

 _"Do you, Izuku Midoriya, accept our aid?"_

There was nothing to suggest that he should trust this woman, no matter the situation that he was in. He didn't know her. Yet all the same, she still felt... familiar. Like he'd known her for so long and he hadn't seen her for a very long time, and yet she was a stranger all the same. And if she was standing in front of that ocean, the one he'd come to associate with One for All, then...

Izuku brought up his hand to grasp hers with a firm hold, saying, "I guess I don't really have another option, huh?"

The woman chuckled as the ocean behind her began to rise steadily, almost as though it was going to engulf the both of them. It did just that, torrenting downwards with an echoing crash of water and sweeping through the both of them, though they remained when they stood before. Izuku could breathe through this water, but that wasn't important either. He could feel it begin to empower him, refill his previously depleted stamina and filling him with power that he never knew he had. The forest behind him suddenly surrounded the two of them, the trees sprouting almost instantaneously and growing even taller than the ones from before, forming a seeming circle shape with their outline.

Then, the once out of focus figure became clearer, to the point that he could see her entirely. She was well built with a defined and muscular figure, which, if Izuku was guessing correctly, was typical of most of One for All's inheritors, with slightly messy, straight black hair kept in a partial bun while the rest of her hair hung loose, just above her shoulders. Her face was rather beautiful, but tough and knowing, like she'd seen much battle and joy, yet like she'd lost more than Izuku could know of. She was dressed in a dark colored, sleeveless bodysuit with a heightened collar that clung to the bottom of her neck, accompanied by thick yellow gloves and white boots, with a white, hooded cape hanging around her neck. This person...

And she gave the boy a small smile, saying to him, "Alright. Fair warning, you're probably not gonna remember much of this. We'll get you out alive, though. Promised you that much.

"Oh, I should tell you my name. Guess it's only fair, since I know yours," she said as she let go of his hand and stepped back, placing both of her hands on her hips as her smile widened to a full-toothed, seemingly cheeky grin so wide that she closed her eyes to form it. "My name's Nana. Nana Shimura."

And once again, the world went white.

 _(Beacon cafeteria, Nana's POV)_

 **(A/N: resume I May Fall at the timestamp 2:30)**

Nana reached out with an Aura that was not her own, feeling the boy's wounds close as the shards on the floor began to hum. They still had life. His weapon wasn't destroyed. And as she manipulated the shards towards the boy's arm, letting them crawl and combine with his skin, she only did it knowing that it was the only way to face a man like Adam Taurus.

And she leapt from the rubble with blinding speed, the shards having now hardened and formed fully into a crystalline and jagged arm, which she used to crack Adam right across the face and into a wall, the force reverberating through the arm itself, causing the still present runes along the arm to glow with power.

Adam leapt through the rubble with an angry snarl on his face, swinging at her with what looked to be all the strength he possessed. She raised the boy's crystalized right arm casually, blocking the blow with such accuracy that she struck his blade in the center and managed to use the reverberation to temporarily stun him, opening him up for a low kick to the ribs.

Adam had the wind knocked all the way out of his lungs from that blow, but he wasn't done yet, fighting through the pain and using his shotgun to get the boy's body away from him, launching Nana back a few feet as he brought up his blade for one final strike.

Only to meet the edge of another blade.

On the back of the boy's arm, only half the length of his sword, was a jagged, single-edged blade, which was currently making quick work of the man in front of her, using three quick slashes to counter Adam's strike, disarm him of his shotgun, and slash him across the chest in rapid succession. Blood splattered onto the ground in a torrent, continuing the flow profusely from the wound, yet still it wasn't enough to put him down.

"WHO ARE YOU?!" He cried as he made one last strike towards the boy's body, only to be countered once more by Nana, their blades echoing against each other for the final time before she used her superior strength to force Adam's sword downwards and stab him straight in the gut.

She never answered him as she pulled the blade from Adam's stomach, covered in crimson as he fell to the ground. He wouldn't die. She knew someone like him wasn't going to lay down and die. Besides...

She was tired of killing.

 **(A/N: End Song)**

She used the time she had left to get the boy's body out of the cafeteria, dragging Adam to the edge of the doorway and leaving him there. What happened to him next was out of her hands, but he would no longer play a part in the tragedy unfolding in front of them.

"Well, looks like my time is up, kid. Remember, the keyword is 'Shatter,'" she said to the slowly waking boy as she began to fade back into the undersea forest, hoping that Izuku would be able to handle what he was about to see.

 _(Izuku's POV)_

The first thing Izuku felt when he reawoke was something on his arm sliding downwards and detaching itself from his skin. It was a bit painful, but it was minor and soon faded. The second thing he felt was Tempest's familiar weight in his right hand, and not just the hilt. It was the first thing he saw as he opened his eyes, seeing Tempest reformed and back to its blade form. But...

 _This shouldn't be possible. It got shattered to bits and shards._

The blade hummed in response to that, trying to reassure its wielder that it was still there and intact. Okay. He didn't know how the heck it had happened, but Tempest was back together, so it would probably be good, for just this once, to not look a gift horse in the mouth.

And then he saw the blood. Adam Taurus laid nearly dead at the doorstep to Beacon's now burning cafeteria. He could barely hear the man's pained wheezes, just barely clinging to consciousness. Did he... did he do that?

"Brother Adam! Where are you?!"

The yells of the White Fang slowly but surely grew ever louder as they searched for their leader, Izuku beginning to panic as they did so. What the hell was he supposed to do? He'd done that. He almost killed somebody. How was he supposed-

And then he felt weight against his back. He reached underneath his blazer to touch it, and felt Yang's severed right arm just as he'd left it before. That was right. He needed to get this to her as fast as he could. He needed to find her.

And so, with only one final glance toward his fallen opponent, he rushed towards the docks with a fierce, determined fire in his eyes, not allowing himself to dwell on what he'd done. Not yet.

 _(meanwhile, the Atlesian Warship, Serpent Saw's POV)_

 **(A/N: Die from RWBY by Jeff Williams)**

Serpent Saw could feel the malice loosening its grip on him, his scales retreating back from whence they'd spawned and took his blood-splattered mask off in turn, placing it back into his tailcoat before turning his head ever so slightly to admire his handiwork with this particular human. This was one of the Iidas, a powerful family of human hunters from Mistral. But hunter or no, he was still human. And he would pay for the sins of his race. Bit by bit.

But before his saw could roar to life once again, he heard a low snarl. Turning towards the noise, he barely managed to dodge an outstretched, dark tinted claw with broken bracers adorning his attacker's forearms, suddenly finding himself out of breath when he was unable to dodge the backswing of another claw, grinding against his aura with an unnatural screech, almost like nails against iron, and causing him to leap further back in surprise.

Bakugo's details had changed drastically, a dark hue spreading from his claws to his hands and what parts of his forearms were visible, his hair now sporadically grown out to reach his mid-back with a pure, snowy white color and incredibly spiky texture. But that wasn't what surprised him the most. The direwolf's eyes were pure red. No pupils, no sclera, but pure, unrelenting, furious red.

He was one of them. And a red one at that.

Serpent Saw revved his saw to life once more as the now raging Bakugo swung in for another claw attack, so telegraphed that he easily dodged the attack and swung his rotating blade full force towards his chest, the blow striking true and spraying blood across he attacker's parka, shredding the front of it in the process.

And then he felt the boy's claws on him, one around his neck and the other on his tailcoat, pulling him forwards and headbutting him right across the nose, cracking his aura even further than it had been in the battle that had ensued before this one. The enraged Bakugo suddenly pulled his hand away from the tailcoat and began to beat away at his lower abdomen, each punch filled with far more strength than any of his blows from before ever had.

Serpent Saw suddenly grabbed Bakugo's arm in a tight grip and used his momentum to throw him over his shoulder and towards the wall of the ship, a loud, dull thud echoing from the impact and forcing the metal to concave inwards from the amount of strength behind it. He needed his strength back, but his malice was kept caged. What was he supposed to do? Was he simply too shocked to call upon it, or-

Bakugo gave him no more time to think as he launched himself forwards with an even louder explosion than the ones from before, the wound across his chest having stitched itself together with the very blood that had spilled from it, the dark claws raking themselves across his aura and causing the violet energy to finally shatter. His fangs suddenly bared themselves as Bakugo went in for his neck, his target just barely managing to dodge it as his jaw snapped shut with a loud crack.

He tried to bring his saw up once more, only for Bakugo to grab it in both hands and keep it in place, anchoring the target of his hatred in the process. His grip tightened, a loud crackle beginning to sound from his palms, building in volume as Serpent Saw tried to free his weapon, the only thing, at that very moment, that was causing him to feel genuine fear.

Then, an explosion with crimson smoke erupted between them, sending them sprawling away from each other as Serpent Saw dug his right arm into the metal to slow his momentum while Bakugo did the same with his left while his right, still bleeding hand clutching what remained of the saw ever so briefly before, with an evil grin, he let loose another explosion, shattering what remained of the weapon even further.

That was the last straw. No one did that to one of his weapons and got away alive!

He ran forward with all the strength that his legs possessed, his scales returning to cover his skin entirely, his left arm in particular hardening to the point that his skin was essentially as strong as aura, raising it as Bakugo continued to stand there with that same, unnatural smile on his face. And as he finally approached the last few steps to deliver the blow...

… Bakugo, even enraged, used another of those crimson smoked explosions to counter it, releasing an unrelenting flurry into the man's chest, blow after blow after blow after blow after blow until finally, Bakugo let out the word he was well known to scream in battle, and the only one that he had the comprehension to focus on.

 **"DIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIE!"**

 **(A/N: End Song)**

 _(Bakugo's POV)_

A final crimson crack filled his ears, finally snapping from his trance as he found himself again standing on the same battlefield he and Tenya had fought on. Far across from him was Serpent Saw, lying face down in a heap, clutching some kind of wound and completely unconscious. The first thing he felt was a soreness across his chest, causing him to fall to a single knee in order to examine what the hell was going on with his chest. It hurt like hell, but it seemed to have stitched itself together with... was that his blood?

He then felt a warm, foreign sensation on his hands. The ashen blonde looked down at his hands to see that something dark was fading from them, and he could feel his suddenly lengthened hair rapidly shortening in sync. But that didn't concern him any.

His hands were covered with blood. Not Grimm blood, not oil from an AK; actual, humanoid blood. He'd never actually had any on his hands before, despite every insult and threat he'd ever made. And it...

 _Getitoffgetitoffgetitoffgetitoff-_

And then, a barely audible groan of pain came from behind him. Remembering why he'd become so angry in the first place, his head whipped around and rushed towards Tenya, who, despite the amount of blood he'd lost and his lack of aura, was still breathing, albeit barely. Bakugo hadn't touched him. He had no idea how to handle a situation like this. He was one of the only ones out of the entire group to not have any medical expertise in the slightest, mostly because he'd written it off as pointless, thinking that a situation like that would never come up as long as he was around. Seeing this sight in front of him now, however...

"Serpent Saw! Where are you?!"

 _Damnit! Are you fucking kidding me with all these damn grunts?! Can this situation possibly get any worse?!_

 _"Ship flight patterns unstable. Five minutes to crash. All personnel, please evacuate immediately. Repeat-"_

 _Me and my fucking mouth. Alright, we need to get to a Bullhead. I know how to fly one of them, and they can be pretty damn fast when someone knows how to actually fly._

Bakugo then brought his spectacled partner over his shoulder before he rushed for the nearby stairwell, a shattered Pride and broken Smoke and Shrapnel left in their wake, his voice repeating the same saying all the way to the Bullhead, "You're gonna be okay. You're gonna be okay. You're gonna be okay..."

 _(meanwhile, Beacon Vault, Ozpin's POV)_

 **(A/N: Time to Say Goodbye from RWBY by Jeff Williams)**

"She was right about you. Such arrogance," Cinder said as she began to float in the air, her Maiden power finally beginning to flow as the flaming mask formed around her eye sockets, Ozpin gripping his cane even tighter in response, an unnatural silence falling between the two. And a moment passed.

And the crack of their clash echoed throughout the vault, reaching the ears of no one.

Cinder had reformed her signature glass scimitars to counter the many jabs and strikes of Ozpin's cane, with only one managing to strike true in the flurry that he'd unleashed. It was a particularly strong one, catching her in the sternum and sending her a few feet back, the glass heels of her shoes digging into the ground as she slowed herself to a halt.

She then raised her hands and bent the glass within the ground to her fiery will, raising it upwards and sending it at Ozpin with a blazing howl against the wind. The headmaster reacted accordingly, activating the magic in his veins, the only one that he still had access to: Time. He doubled his speed, his limbs becoming blurs and after images as his cane whipped and thrashed through the air, the glass shattering into shards on contact, giving him enough of an opening to launch himself forwards at such a rate that Cinder was again caught off guard, only able to just barely dodge the strike that cut through the air where she once stood.

Their weapons met once again, separating to gain momentum and strike at each other once more, only to repeat this process over and over as the foundations of the vault began to crack beneath the sheer pressure of their battle. But the two were nowhere near done. Ozpin, knowing in the back of his mind that his body would not last, decided to pull out all stops, increasing his speed from double acceleration to triple acceleration, a fact which proved useful as Cinder unleashed even more glass towards him. This time, however, despite the increased number, Ozpin was able to get through the attack entirely unharmed, his cane jabbing out and hitting Cinder in as many places as he could before giving yet another jab to her sternum, sending her back yet again.

Beyond Cinder's mask was a look of rage, one that Ozpin himself could not hope to counter as her blades were suddenly set alight, suddenly becoming blurs as she sent slash after slash of burning air at the target of her wrath, Ozpin countering accordingly with all speed that triple acceleration would allow him to use, but finding that even this speed was no match for the False-Maiden's hatred. Burns and cuts of all degrees began to cover his chest, despite his efforts, and by the time they'd stopped, Ozpin was panting from the effort, while Cinder looked as though she was only beginning to tap into her power. He couldn't hold back, but this final gear would kill him, consuming the rest of his aura and taking him in the process.

Manipulating what little energy remained, he stabbed his cane into the ground as he formed a shield around himself, Cinder using this to her advantage and sending a blast of flame upon it, Ozpin gritting his teeth from the effort it was taking to keep it together.

Then, he started to remember. The first time he'd ever met Toshinori, the two smiling like idiots as they drank the only alcohol the two had ever consumed in their lives. Ironwood smirking as he helped him up from a battleground, numerous dead Grimm disappearing around them. Qrow smack talking with his blonde teammate as the two girls of Team STRQ shook their heads in disapproval. Glynda arguing with Torino over some rule or another back in her academy days.

And finally, a memory that wasn't quite his. A woman with pale white skin and a black dress. An old friend. Humanoid figures, who looked like her, standing behind. And as the crimson seeped into the background, they faded... and the woman grew spiteful, her eyes red with the hatred that he had put there.

 _… our greatest mistake._

Ozpin's eyes flared green, finding the determination to push onwards and activate his fourth, and final, gear. He leapt away from his position in the cracked, concrete ground, allowing Cinder's blast to make contact with it, launching off one of the walls with another echo and striking her from the air, a billowing cloud marking where she landed as Ozpin touched down with nary a sound, then twirling his cane with a flourish as swinging it through the air, his right arm now parallel to the ground as magical sparks began to trail down his cane, forming a thin, light-green crystal blade as he himself began to glow with the same color. This was it. This final clash would decide it all.

Cinder seemed to think this as well, launching herself with all the speed a woman with the Maiden powers could possess, Ozpin launching himself forwards to meet her as their blades clashed against each other once more, the distinct sound of metal against crystal filling his senses as he pushed. And pushed. And pushed with all the might he had left...

Until he had nothing more to give.

 **(A/N: End Song)**

Ozpin knew that Cinder had killed him before she did. Granted, he did play a part in his own death, channeling more magic than this particular body could handle at such an age, but still. She was the one to strike the final blow. He would give Salem this: she'd certainly chosen a powerful apprentice.

 _Powerful... and spiteful. Filled with hatred. When will you learn the same lesson, Salem? War begets war, and nothing else. I wish we had known that back then. If so, then maybe... maybe none of this would've happened._

 _I'll likely not awaken within the next host for some time. Not after using such powerful magic. I hope that they can do better than I did. Be better than I was._

 _… Master Noah... what would you say, if you could see me now?_

And as his body finally faded into sparks, his now reverted, normal cane clattering to the ground, the air was silent, save for the cackling, high and mighty laugh of his opponent. And his question went unanswered.

 _(meanwhile, down in Vale, All Might's POV)_

The dust in the air billowed like storm clouds as the once smiling giant drank deeper air, with Ironwood and Qrow at his side while Glynda maintained the barrier in front of them. Damn. This fight had already destroyed so much of Vale, and they couldn't let anything else happen to further the damage. Otherwise there'd be nothing left.

 **" It took you approximately seventeen seconds to evacuate the hundred or so civilians that remained from the battlefield, and another three to attack me again, and then it took the witch about five to stabilize the barrier you're cowering behind. Twenty-five seconds in total. **

**"My, my. Have you gotten slower in your age, All Might?"**

 **"It's not as though you're much better off yourself, All for One!"** All Might yelled as he charged once again, meeting the masked man's outstretched left hand before he was sent flying further back into another city block, wall after wall after building collapsing after him before he finally managed to slow himself to a stop and launch himself back into the fight.

Qrow and Ironwood were fighting him now, the former getting as close as he could while the latter gave the red-eyed reaper ranged support along with Gynda, who was now firing sharpened shrapnel at such a rate that what ruble was around her quickly began to disappear. His fist made contact with the man's helmet, causing an echoing crack and a burst of wind to erupt from where he stood as the other hunters struggled to not be blown away themselves.

As the dust cleared once more, All Might was seen towering above All for One with his left fist buried in his face, with one of his hair spikes now deflated and seemingly useless. The right side of his face was starting to revert, but luckily the transformation hadn't gone anywhere beyond that. As he panted audibly, the strength required for the blow knocking the wind out of him, All for One continued to talk in his casual tone.

 **" I see that Ironwood is keeping his distance from me. Not that I could blame him, really. The last time I fought him I took his entire right side for myself. How did he survive that, by the way? It wasn't Aura, and I was sure the man was rather dead."**

All Might didn't respond, and instead pressed his fist deeper into All for One's forehead, and even then, the man still continued.

 **" And is that Qrow over there? I see he's getting the hang of that semblance of his. Well, as much as he can get on it. What I wouldn't give to take that for myself. Damn Passives, they always were the hardest to take."**

Even deeper.

And All for One sighed in disappointment, continuing, **" There. That look. It's the one I hate so much. All it seems to do is remind me of that damn woman. Your predecessor was unworthy of the power you now wield. A fool with ideals she could never hope to live up to. An utter waste of life and Aura. If the entity could see where one of the powers they bestowed upon me and my brother had ended up, I know they'd have been just as disappointed in-"**

 **"My master was a true huntress! One of the greatest to ever walk this land! Keep her name out of your filthy mouth you monster!"**

 **" And you're just as foolish for trying to uphold her legacy! How embarrassing, for me, as the partial creator of your power, to pass it on to such blind idealists. And the way she died... pathetic, even for someone like-"**

 **"ENOUGH!"**

His fist struck down once more, but All for One had already activated another one of his semblances, blasting All Might upwards on a torrent of wind. As he continued to rise upwards, the blonde giant suddenly spilled blood from his lips, losing its shape in the air as he continued to rise with no sign of stopping.

Then, somebody tackled him from the side. It was a small figure, with familiar, and large, yellow boots, gloves, and a long cape.

 **"Torino..."**

 **" You're in the way." **the masked man called up to them before he was caught off guard by Qrow, only barely managing to dodge to strike from the man's incredibly sharp scythe, slicing through the remains of an empty building behind him.

"Don't forget we're here too, ya fucking psychopath!" Qrow said as his gaze burned with all the rage a man like him could possess, with Glynda and Ironwood covering his approach as All Might and Torino landed once more.

"You're letting him get inside your head. I know it's hard to ignore such horrible things, but you need to stay calm. Rushing at him full force isn't going to work this time. You need to use that damn brain of yours and figure out a proper strategy. So calm down. Flipping out is only going to get you another massive hole in your body. Got it?"

 **"Yessir."** All Might responded with a clear head and a far steadier voice.

All for One, realizing that his opponent was back in the fight proper, blocked Qrow's sword strike with his bare arm and flung him back towards Ironwood and Glynda, then continuing, **" You know, All Might, I'm rather conflicted now. Tomura was the one who began to be and chip away at this society's trust in you and other hunters, so shouldn't he be the one to finally put you in your place? But, on the other hand... as much as you may hate me, All Might, you should know that I absolutely loathe you. **

**"Yes, I killed your master. But you? You have singlehandedly undermined and toppled everything I tried so hard to build. Centuries of work, up in smoke. I want you to suffer for every breath you draw in my presence! I will break you, body, mind, and soul, for all of Remnant to see! And as your cold, hopeless body ripens the ground with your unworthy blood, the Grimm shall have their way with those who despair and panic, for a new humanity to be reborn from the ashes of the old!"** All for One taunted as his right arm suddenly began to expand yet again, a sign that he was about to unleash another massive attack against them.

"Get clear! It's a big one!" Torino yelled to the other three combatants as he launched himself into the air with his staff in hand. Qrow quickly made himself scarce as he turned into his namesake form while Glynda quickly made a platform from the rubble to hoist herself and Ironwood out of the line of fire.

But as Toshinori too prepared to leap away from the attack, All for One used his little trump card. One little truth to keep the target of his hatred a static one.

 **" I don't believe all of you can dodge this."**

And behind him, Toshinori heard it. The small, almost inaudible whimper of a woman trapped beneath the rubble of a building behind him. They'd missed one. And All for One's statement was right. If he dodged, the woman behind him would not survive.

And in an instant, before Qrow could transform back, before Torino could launch himself down in time, before Glynda could muster the blonde giant any sort of defense, the area was filled once more with the howling winds that had leveled their battlefield only minutes beforehand, with All Might caught in the middle of it.

The dust that had been kicked up in the ensuing chaos swept all of them away, their figures flying off into the distance with no signs of returning to help their Symbol of Hope. He was on his own now. And as the seconds ticked by, the cloud sinking lower and lower in mass, his left fist bleeding with broken fingers aching from the effort it took to nullify the blast, he knew that he was on his very last legs.

And so, there he stood. His gangly, almost skeletal form with his left fist outstretched and bloodied, with a large indent of the blast he blocked stretching out in front of him, what rubble of the buildings remained behind him entirely unharmed. He was nearly out of power. But still...

 **" Look at you now. Hollow cheeks and sunken eyes. And to think that your very name could fill even the greatest of criminals with terror. And now, the world can see you for what you really are. Not a symbol, not a god, not even a guardian! Just a man too weak to stand up to someone far superior to himself. Try to not be so ashamed of it."**

But his words, no matter how true they might've been at that moment, did nothing to extinguish the fire in Toshinori's eyes. He wasn't about to give in. Not now. Not when there was so much left to do. All for One was being cocky, like the world could see his true form. He probably had someone with a camera placed nearby, maybe the only one that could get signals out to the public at that moment. But even so, he could use that to his own advantage.

"Even if my body should rot away and grow frail... even if you've exposed my true form..." Toshinori clenched his left fist once more, allowing what power remained to glow and give him what power he had left. As his hair began to wisp around in the evening wind, he continued, "In my heart, I am, and shall remain, the Symbol of Hope for all of Remnant! There is nothing that you, or anyone, can do to take that from me!"

But All for One seemed to take that as a challenge, responding to his declaration with, **"Really? Is that true? I'd forgotten just how stubborn you could be. Suppose I should just give up.**

 **"Oh! But, one more thing I should tell you, before we end this little fight. I think you'll be very interested in hearing this. Tomura Shigaraki, the man you've been fighting against for the past several months, my apprentice?**

 **"He's Nana Shimura's grandson."**

And their battlefield, for the first time in its entirety, went silent. Toshinori's eyes widened in realization, his bony grin now wiped entirely from his face as his fist unclenched and fell limply to his side. He tried to stay angry at the masked man, saying with denial lining his voice, "That's a lie... that has to be a lie..."

 **"Oh, come now. You know it's the truth. It's obviously something I would do,"** All for One mocked as Toshnori's eyes began to lose their fire.

 **"And look at that. Where's that big old smile of yours, Symbol of Hope? Did I crush it along with your pride?"** The man said in a mocking tone as he placed his thumbs onto his nonexistent cheeks, pushing upwards as he mocked something that Toshinori had long admired his predecessor for.

 _"Remember, Toshinori, if you're rescuing someone, it probably means that they've just gone through something rather terrifying. They will be scared. Real hunters, real heroes, don't just save someone's life. Sometimes they have to save people's hearts too. And that's why you've got to put on a fearless smile for them, even if it isn't genuine, and even if you're scared half to death yourself. To show them that everything's gonna be okay. Because,"_ the dark-haired figure turned as she said this, putting her fingers into her cheeks as she forced a grin, saying, _"the people who're always smiling, in this world, are the strongest ones. Don't forget that."_

And despite the words of his mentor...

 _I... I betrayed... I... What have I done?_

And he cried out in despair, his jaw unhinged and open wide as he screamed to the heavens. He'd been broken. This was exactly what All for One had wanted. And Toshinori couldn't bring himself to care. Not after what he'd just learned.

"Please... don't... give up... All Might. You can... still win..." he heard the survivor's whimper echo throughout the now dead quiet battlefield. That was right. He still had... someone to save...

Another metallic echo rang throughout their battlefield as Harbinger was blocked by All for One with a single hand, the masked man in question looking down at its bearer in seeming annoyance. **" I should've guessed that you wouldn't be quite as easy to get rid of, Black Reaper. I imagine Ironwood and the Witch have their hands full with keeping civilians safe. Well, if nothing else, you've certainly been more of a fight than-"**

"Speak her name and I will stop at nothing to kill you in the most painful way I can imagine," Qrow said as his crimson eyes almost started to glow, his blade beginning to dig deeper into the man's flesh as he pushed downwards with all his might.

 **" But isn't there someone who you swore to protect? And is she not at the most dangerous place in all of Vale, at this very moment?"**

For only a moment, Qrow's strength slipped. And it was all the time that All for One needed to catch him off guard, punching him in the gut and sending him straight towards the furthest edge of their arena. **" This is not your battle to fight. Now, do as the others have done; remember your place, keep civilians alive, and stay out of my way."**

Qrow rose from the rubble with a cough, using Harbinger to balance himself upright as he wiped a trickle of red from his mouth with his eyes still ablaze with rage. Then, from seemingly nowhere, Edgeshot appeared from above, landing next to Qrow and whispering something in his ear. His rage lessened almost instantly, whispering something back to him and causing the hunter to nod in response. The red-eyed reaper then gave All Might an apologetic look before saying, "Hang in there, All Might! You've got this! I know you do," and turning into his bird form, soaring quickly into the night sky and making a beeline for Beacon.

 _I'm..._

"ALL MIGHT! WHAT IS WITH THAT PATHETIC FORM OF YOURS?! WHY DO YOU LOOK LIKE THIS?!" Toshinori heard from behind him, Endeavor standing off to the side of the battlefield, with Edgeshot quickly joining him with his hand perched lightly on his blade, a stark contrast to Endeavor's own Helheim blade; a massive, hulking greatsword the length of his entire body with a thick blade, wide edge, and a long handle built to handle the weight. A weapon that he rarely used.

And for only a moment, in that man's eyes he saw regret. Guilt. And then, like the fire from his semblance, his eyes flared with anger. But not towards him.

 _I'm still..._

Edgeshot fired off from his perch like a bullet with his curved blade in hand, whipping about in the air as he managed to distract the hulking villain from the task at hand, giving Endeavor the opening he needed to swing Helheim in a wide, sweeping arc and send All for One further backwards, though this more a distraction than anything else, proven when All for One simply swept his arm with the blowback semblance activated, causing the two of them to scatter to the winds. But not before Endeavor could cry out, "ALL MIGHT! YOU'D BETTER EXPLAIN EVERYTHING! NOW CLOCK THIS GUY SO WE CAN TALK, OUMDAMMIT!"

And for only the slightest moment, he could hear them. The cries of the world, looking out on his battle with this great villain, for him to win. To give them hope. To reassure them that he was there. That despite the odds, despite the hopelessness, he would keep moving forward.

 _I am still here, damnit!_

 **(A/N: You Say Run from My Hero Academia)**

He needed a good wake up call. This was even better. So, he grit his teeth to block out the pain of what he'd just learned, and smiled as he responded to the woman behind him, the loudest of all the voices he'd heard, saying, "Fear not, madam. You are safe."

His right arm began to swell with energy, sparking off his skin in such a way that he hadn't felt in years. It began to enlarge itself, swelling to the proportions that his giant form once held, his eyes glowing their signature blue as the fire sparked to life once more, the energy continuing to crackle off of his arm as he finished, "I am still here. And I **will not lose!"**

All for One almost flinched when he saw that. Damn. This was the same as it had been all those years ago. All Might was always at his most dangerous when he'd been backed into a corner. Not even punching that hole in his stomach had slowed his rampage. Or his fists.

Time to bring out the real firepower.

The masked man's right arm once again began to enlarge itself, but unlike before, it enlarged even further, twisting and contorting to unnatural degrees. It was an amalgamation of all the strongest quirks he had at his disposal, pieces of metal and flesh melding in harmony as his final attack was prepared, a gigantic hand that dwarfed even him in size. But he still had one more thing to throw his opponent off guard.

 **" Izuku Midoriya. He's your protégé. Your inheritor. It's a shame you won't be able to guide him from the grave!"** All for One yelled as he charged the gangly man, his massive hand clenched behind him as the wind howled from his speed.

But Toshinori held his ground, glaring straight at his opponent never, taking his gaze off of him. This final clash would echo through the city, through the very ground on which they stood, and, potentially, even the world on which their battle held weight. But even so, a thought that pushed him farther, pushed him harder, was this one.

 _I need to live. So that I can teach him properly this time!_

And their fists met with a burst of wind, reality almost seeming to bend to the force of their clash, with the ground beneath them almost giving way to the force of it all. But Toshinori had a plan in mind. He put some of the strength that he still had into one of his feet, stopping himself from moving back any further as he slowly but surely transferred the energy from his right out to his left.

 _Izuku... thank you. In the end, I think I might've learned something from you as well. You are more than worthy._

Then, suddenly, he kicked the transfer into full, allowing his right arm to lose its form and receive several breaks while his left bulked up instead, swinging towards All for One's face with said arm, missing and instead bouncing off of his shoulder.

 **" Well, that was certainly unexpected. And incredibly weak."** The masked man said as he began to do the same with his own left hand. But Toshinori was nowhere near done.

 **"That's because... I didn't put my back into it."**

With those words, he felt One for All begin to leave him, despite his best efforts to keep the flame burning, to keep marching on and finally take down his greatest foe. But his strength wasn't gone entirely, not yet. He could feel the other inheritors granting him their strength, their wisdom, their passion. And it burned with such fury that he could barely contain it within his own body.

 _"It's your turn now, Toshinori,"_ He could hear Nana's words echo through his ears once again as he clenched his broken right fist with all his might, feeling it expand and bulk up once more as it then began to glow gold with power. And then, with his left foot planted firmly in front of him, twisting his hips as far as he could, he put all his strength, his rage, and his hope, into this final devastating blow.

 **"KINGDOMS OF SMAAAAAAASH!"**

The masked man's helmet shattered in its entirety as Toshinori continued to put all of his weight into this final blow, smiling all the while as he felt the inferno burn bright for one final time. His blow then slammed the masked man into the ground, kicking up the air around them with such force that it became a tornado, whipping and thrashing about as it rocketed towards the cloud-covered heavens, clearing the sky almost entirely as it slowly came to a stop.

Standing over the defeated body of All for One, his broken fist still buried in his opponent's cheek, was Toshinori, his final act as the Symbol of Hope, finally complete. And despite the pain that coursed through his body, he still stood tall. Even now, broken, bloody, and powerless, he would stand tall.

 _Farewell... One for All._ He thought to himself as the flame began to sputter and shrink, leaving behind only the slightest of flickers as the rest faded away.

 _I've done all I can, Izuku. Keep strong, kid. You'll be better than I ever was. I know it._

And he pointed to the glimmer atop one of the remaining buildings, where he now knew All for One had placed a cameraman, as he yelled out from the depths of his soul, before the man could recover from the shock, **"** **You're... Next!" **

**A/N: Wow. That took a while. Well, I had a heck of a time writing these things, and I hope that you all had just as much fun reading them. Sorry this took so long to get out. I wanted to polish these fights as much as I could before I published the chapter. That and I'm pretty sure that as I'm writing this I'm either being assaulted by allergies or coming down with something. The only thing I seem to hate about Fall with a passion.**

 **Well, my Spring allergies are usually worse anyways. *realization* Oh... shit.**

 **And now, onto the review responses:**

 **KiroZen: I hope that the absolute ass-kicking that Serpent Saw received in this chapter reformed some of that finely powdered dust.**

 **Midgardsmor Jr: It's up, and I have since then applied the updates. Enjoy!**

 **ABYSSALISK: I will definitely check the series out once I have some spare time.**

 **ZWarrior4life: It's up and it's out! Enjoy!**

 **Loki's Tounge: That didn't happen, as much as I would've liked to somehow fit it in there, but either way I hope you enjoyed the fight!**

 **Dreamweaver543: Soon. Relatively. I have been looking at them, and while they do look interesting, unfortunately, I'm not going to be able to take any of them up anytime soon. Because college is a meatgrinder.**

 **King Wyrm: It's up! And yes, they are going to bond further as Yang gets better, though that's not going to be the whole basis of it.**

 **Uruk-Hai: I would be willing to post it as a challenge on my page, but I while that is a fantastic idea and one I would love to write, I'm afraid that I wouldn't be able to do so. At least, not at the moment. I've got a lot on my plate between college and this. But, once this story finishes up, I'll definitely take this idea under consideration if someone else doesn't pick it up first. Because seriously, I love the idea of Smaug in Remnant to wreak absolute havoc!**

 **Kaiser Dragon: It's on the semi-distant horizon. Give it a bit.**

 **Odin's Eye: Yeah, I suppose it is. Who knows what ironies might make their way in next!**

 **Black Fang: Oh. Wow. I genuinely did not expect that level of praise. Thank you! I hope I can continue living up to your expectations!**

 **Also, it's up now! Enjoy!**

 **Thunder Dragon: Well, thank you for giving me permission. And who knows, maybe I will come back to it. Unfortunately, that may not be for a long while. I really do like the idea though!**

 **Dragon Dust: That is an understandable issue to take with this story, and you're not the only one I've heard this from. I mean, I've been looking back at the early days of this story and have kinda cringed from just how little stuff changed despite the fact that I included the MHA characters. Even during the newer chapters, there are a few things that I wish I had done differently.**

 **However, I do have a plan in place to hopefully improve on the stuff that the canon could've done better (especially for Volume 5), but I also have some thoughts on how to improve from here. I'll get back to that once I wrap up Volume 3.**

 **Sorry this only got out at the end of the month. It's been a busy few weeks. Hope you're all doing well, and I hope you enjoyed!**

 **Next Chapter: Oct 14th. Hopefully.**

 **Seeya in the next one!**


	41. End of the Beginning

**A/N: I recently finished playing through Insomniac's Spider-Man, and it was awesome! I highly recommend playing it, whether you're a fan of the Web-Head or just want a good video game to play. Now... on to Dragon Quest XI... No, I'm not kidding. Here we go!**

 **Disclaimer: I do not own RWBY or My Hero Academia. They belong to Monty Oum, Kohei Horikoshi, and their respective publishing companies. Please support the official releases.**

 **I do not own the cover image**

Chapter 41: End of the Beginning

Izuku made no move to stop the tears from flowing down his cheeks as he raced onwards to the docks, having heard in the background of the chaos what his mentor had said aloud before the transmission went to complete static. There was nothing more that All Might could do now. He was all that was left of One for All. He had to move onwards, keep on fighting. For both of them.

The chaos at the docks was apparent before he even arrived. People were racing about with panicked voices and faces, looking for lost friends and family in a desperate frenzy while Port and Oobleck guided them to evacuation ships as quickly as they could. Sun, Shoto, and Weiss were standing guard against any potential Grimm, while Aizawa observed the passengers to check for any potential League or Fang members.

But more than any of that, Izuku almost immediately noticed a few things: one, Peach was nowhere to be found, as was evidenced by the fact that injured were currently being ferried onto the fastest ship they had available; two, among the wounded were Tenya and Bakugo, both of whom had several wounds across their bodies of varying degrees, from minor to incredibly severe, with Tenya having most of the latter of the blood seeping through the bandages on his legs was anything to go by; three, Yang was still on the ground, unconscious, her stub now bandaged but still seeping from the red that continued to soak through, with Blake holding her partners hand all the while, her own stab wound having been bandaged but still incapacitating her for the time being.

His half and half leader quickly intercepted him, giving him a once over before saying, "Thank Oum you're... hey... what the hell is with those scars?! Are you hurt? Do you need anything?"

But Izuku didn't respond to him, halfheartedly pushing his way past his partner and practically stumbled towards Yang, falling to his knees as the tears kept falling, both for All Might and for her. He hoped her eyes would open, give him some sign that she was alright, that she could somehow beat back what had just happened. But still, there she laid, dead to the world, her only sign of life being the ever so faint, almost unnoticeable rise and fall of her chest.

"I'm sorry..." he whispered, so low that no one else could hear him, and continued, "I wasn't fast enough... this is my fault... I-"

 _"-Toshinori healed me. Even though it left a scar that pretty much marred my face permanently, he saved my life."_

Izuku didn't know how or why that thought chose to creep its way into his thoughts. Yes, it had been on his mind for a while, and he'd never found the right time to bring it up with All Might. But... maybe...

As the tears continued to trickle, though his eyes were slowly transitioning to a determined gaze, he grabbed at Yang's severed arm and brought it out. He heard a few shocked reactions behind them, Ruby, Shoto, and Sun among them, but he paid them no heed. He knew what he had to do. He hoped.

He felt his markings begin to glow with power as he activated Full Cowl, his sclera darkening and his eyes beginning to glow a fluorescent green as he placed one hand on Yang's stub and held her severed right arm in the other. He began to pump Aura through his markings as he brought the two closer, the glow spreading to his bare skin as he continued to try, with all his concentration, and the effort that he could muster.

Yet still, it wasn't enough. The glow flickered and faded back to the marks, and Yang's arm remained as it was: severed. It hadn't worked.

"... c'mon..." he whispered to himself as he tried once more to no avail. And again. And again. And still, through it all through the confused and shocked gazes placed upon him, through the worried tones he heard muffled through the air, and the desperation that he felt in his heart, it still did not work.

"Please... just... just let me help her... please..." he whispered again as he hung his head in seeming defeat, the crackling of energy and the glowing of his eyes fading as he practically begged someone, something, to help him.

But no one came.

…

 _ **What's with that look, students?**_

 _Huh?_

He didn't know why, but he was remembering something else. Something that he might've forgotten. He knew that All Might had said it in class, addressing the fact that a lot of people, despite laws, regulations, various Grimm defenses, and more, still died.

 _ **It is true that people can, and sometimes do, die, despite our best efforts. It's an inevitable fact of life. Sometimes, saving one person means losing another. There could be people on the other side of the world crying out for help. But we would never get there in time. That's why you must save as many as you can save, with your own two hands. Because in the end, when there's no one around to help, it might very well be down to you and you alone. So, if you ever are in that situation, dig deep within yourself, find the courage to stand tall and smile, and give it everything you have! Surpass your limits, and Go Beyond! Plus Ultra!**_

 _… go beyond._

Izuku grit his teeth and opened his eyes, the landscape a plain gray, the only color within his sight being the smoldering figure of the blonde brawler laying in front of him. Process had activated. Whether he had done it consciously or not wasn't important at the moment. Through the haze, he could see a thin, whispy thread of gold that connected the stump to her severed, now flickering and fading arm. Could he...

Without any further time to waste, he grasped the connection with both of his hands as his markings began to glow once more, the glow then spreading to the rest of his skin as he pumped all the Aura he could into that tiny, but still incredibly strong, connection. He wasn't going to fail her. Not again.

The golden thread began to glow brighter, thickening itself as the severed limb was pulled closer and closer to her stump, and only continued to glow even brighter until the only thing he saw was bright, fluorescent gold, almost turning white in the haze as he let go of the connection.

When he opened his eyes once again, he found that he wasn't on the Beacon Airdock anymore, trying to reattach Yang's arm. Instead, he stood in what looked to be a brightly lit, humble room, brightly lit with the colors of yellow and orange, with smooth mahogany wood lining the floor and two chairs in front of a currently blazing fireplace.

Sitting in front of said fireplace, legs crossed and seemingly asleep, was a blazing gold figure, the same one that he'd always seen Yang as when Process had activated. But that too wasn't what was capturing his attention, at least at the moment. Her arm, specifically where it had been bisected, was glowing incredibly bright, but not in the same shade of gold. It was a burnt, almost rust looking shade of orange.

"-zuku!"

And before he could start to make sense out of just what he was seeing, the green haired inheritor was brought back to reality, with a concerned Shoto and Ruby leaning over him, the latter with tears staining her cheeks as she tried to smile, but failed as she brought up Izuku by the torso and hugged him.

A few seconds passed before she finally released him, his half and half leader then taking the liberty to ask, "Are you alright?"

"... yeah, I'm-" Izuku suddenly began to cough for a few moments, an irony taste filling his mouth and a fluid pushing against his lips, only stopped when his hand covered his mouth to stop the spillage. He didn't have to look at it to know it was blood.

When the coughing ended, Weiss joined her partner and acquaintance, almost immediately noticing the slightest trickle of red falling from one of his fingers, bringing a handkerchief out of one of her pockets and moving Izuku's hand away from his mouth, wiping the blood away from his face as she scolded, "I know what you were going to say, but you are most certainly _not_ fine, Midoriya. Whatever that... technique was that let you heal Yang hurt you."

He hardly heard anything after that, suddenly rising from the ground and whipped his head about, desperate to find where Yang was after that. It was a long shot, and he didn't even know if it would work. _Please be okay, please be okay, please-_

It didn't take long for him to find her, blonde hair still splayed, chest still faintly rising and falling, limbs limp at her-

 _… it worked. It actually worked._

Izuku practically fell to his knees at that, only kept from the pavement by Shoto, who caught him by the torso and hoisted him to his feet. Yang's right arm had been reattached, like it had never been severed in the first place, the only evidence being the thin yet still defined scar lining the middle of her bicep. Tears started to trickle from his eyes once more, struggling against Shoto's hold as he tried to get closer to her, only for him to say, "You need to rest. Seriously, lie down."

He complied, though reluctantly, sitting himself down against the pavement as Ruby and Weiss stood from their spots, saying that they would find someone and bring them back. Wait, what? Why? Wasn't everyone here at the docks? Shouldn't they be going down to Vale or-

And then, as his eyes spotted a beaten and breathless Ren and Nora, he knew who was missing. Jaune and Pyrrha weren't there, and if Ozpin's words were to be believed, they were probably at the tower to... did the procedure even work? Was Pyrrha alright? Did Jaune know about the Maidens now? What if that half-Maiden had shown up?

It was that last question in particular that made Izuku force himself to his feet, despite the fact that he felt half dead and his Aura definitely wasn't in the best shape, straightening his posture as best he could as he said to the three in front of him, "I'm coming too."

Ruby, Weiss, and Shoto looked at him like he was crazy. Not that he could exactly blame them for worrying, if any of them were in his situation he'd probably be giving them the exact same look. But this wasn't the time to argue semantics.

"Izuku," Ruby said as she stepped towards him, "you just started to cough up blood. You're not in any condition to-"

"I know where they are."

This caught them by surprise, the white-haired heiress simply asking, "Where?"

Izuku didn't answer her, however, noticing a stray Beowolf creeping up behind them and onto the docks. He reached over his shoulder and brought Tempest to bare, throwing it with a metallic hum as it streaked through the air and struck it in the side, causing it to yell out in pain before Sun leapt over and finished it off with a single stroke from his gunchucks.

The green haired inheritor walked over to the disintegrating corpse of the Grimm and lifted Tempest from its body, slinging it over his shoulder once again as he turned to Sun, asking, "Can you make sure everyone gets out alright?"

"Yeah. Don't worry, I'll make sure they stay safe. Besides, my team's down in Vale, and they're gonna need me once I get the others to wherever Peach and the other teachers have holed up," Sun responded.

"C'mon. We need to get after them," Shoto to the green haired inheritor with his icy blade in hand once more, Ruby and Weiss behind as they tried to convince him otherwise.

"At this point, there's no point in stopping him. Might as well make sure he doesn't go in alone," Shoto said in his partner's defense. After a few seconds of hesitation, they nodded in acceptance, drawing their respective weapons as they joined the two on the edge of the docks.

"This is going to be an uphill battle. I hope you're ready for that, Midoriya," Weiss said with a focused, icy stare.

"We promised we'd get them back. Now let's follow through on it!" Ruby said as she lead the charge towards Beacon with Cresent Rose in hand, her partner and the half and half leader following close behind.

Izuku took one last, ever so short look back at the docks. Yang and Blake were being carried away to the medical ship now, Sun boarding with them to make sure everyone got out okay, and Bart and Port were setting up another perimeter around the docks now that the other three had left. But he knew they could handle it. They had to.

And he followed his allies back into the depths of monsters.

 _(meanwhile, near Beacon Tower, Jaune's POV)_

"Okay. We need to get the others. I'll call Ruby, and she can get STIK and the rest of RWBY rounded up, then maybe call in her uncle for backup," Jaune said as he tapped away at the holographic buttons on his scroll, Pyrrha looking back at the school with a worried gaze. He was a bit concerned himself, but this was Ozpin they were talking about. He wouldn't-

But the roar of rising flames silenced that thought entirely, rising higher through the tower as a smoldering crackle of ember was left in their wake.

"No way... Ozpin-"

"We're out of time," Pyrrha whispered to herself as she looked back at Jaune, saying, "Go. Get down to Vale, and get whoever you can!"

"Okay, but... what about you?"

A few seconds of tense silence passed as the red headed amazon glanced down at the cracked and worn concrete by her feet, her fists clenching together as she brought her gaze upwards... to the top of the tower.

"No... Pyrrha, no! You can't beat her! She's too powerful, even for you! I can't-"

He was interrupted when she suddenly closed the distance between them, bringing her hands to his face and pressing her lips against his. Despite the desperation, the hardship, and the impending doom practically clawing at their coattails, he let himself get lost in the moment. Slowly, he pulled Pyrrha closer to him, simultaneously deepening the kiss that he wanted to last forever.

But she pulled away, her eyes still closed as a single tear flowed down her cheek, saying to the blonde knight two shaky, regret ridden words. "I'm sorry."

 _ **"Master-"**_

But neither Jaune nor Lancelot managed to react in time as Pyrrha used her semblance to rocket them into a nearby locker and lock the door tightly shut. Jaune banged his fists against the door, his mind only concerned with getting out and keeping his partner safe. But as she punched in the coordinates, and looked back at him one last time, all he could see in her watery green orbs was anguish and apology.

And then the locker left the ground, rocketing towards Vale and leaving a streaking trail of smoke where it arched through the open sky.

"Lance! Bust us out of here!" Jaune said as he continued to struggle against the momentum of the locker, his fists still echoing off of the door as they were carried higher and higher.

 _ **"But Master Jaune, we are incredibly high up. You might not-"**_

"I have a plan for that! Now get us out of here!"

Without further argument, Lancelot formed an armored gauntlet and blasted the door off of its hinges, causing it to catch the wind and flail about in the sky as it tumbled to the ground below. Paying that fact no heed, Jaune jumped out of the object carrying him as the wind caught his figure, causing him to flail about for only a second before just barely managing to right himself, suddenly finding that he was far above the dormitories, and in a perfect place to enact his landing strategy.

"Lance, once we get close enough to one of the buildings, use your gauntlet to slow us down. We can make our way down from there."

 _ **"Understood, Master Jaune."**_

The wind howled in his ears as they neared the ground with greater speeds by each passing second, the roofs of the dormitories veering ever closer. Finally, Lancelot managed to catch one of the sides of a dormitory, the arm digging through the structure as their descent slowed, finally reaching the ground with a slight patter of Jaune's shoes as he ran towards the tower once again. He wasn't going to let her fight this battle on her own, dammit!

 _(meanwhile, somewhere in Beacon Courtyard, Izuku's POV)_

"Shoto! Catch!" Izuku yelled to his partner as he hooked a Beowolf by the shoulder with Cirrus, launching off of the ground with Stratus and then firing off the former to launch the Grimm straight at his partner, who swiftly cleaved the beast in half with a single swing. He then bounced off of his hands when he landed, spinning mid-jump with Tempest outstretched to cleave yet another Grimm in two, landing with his back to the rose-themed reaper as she provided cover fire for her platinum-haired partner.

"Izuku! Got a big one over here!" Shoto shouted as he retreated a few steps from an Ursa Major, who was currently cleaving its way through a few ice barricades he'd made to slow it down.

"I got it!"

…

That wasn't Izuku.

The Ursa Major's roar was suddenly cut short as a flash of white cut through the air, allowing the hulking beast to stay airborne for a few seconds before it suddenly fell in two, leaving a kneeling Jaune with Lancelot's torso floating above him as the Ursa faded into ash.

Dispelling Lancelot, Jaune's hands flew to his side, drawing Crocea Mors as quickly as he could, the edge catching a Beowolf by the throat, causing it to dissipate almost immediately. "C'mon! We don't have a lot of time!"

"What do you mean?! And where's Pyrrha?!" Ruby yelled to the blonde knight as she began to fire off a few more rounds at a few Creeps that were making their way over, suddenly taking her scythe out of the ground and using it to bisect an incoming Griffon.

"That's just it! She's at the top of Beacon Tower, and I think she's-"

But before Jaune could finish his sentence, a roar could be heard from overhead. Everyone stopped what they were doing, and even the Grimm had stopped attacking to look upwards to the noise's origin. It was a Grimm, larger than any that they had ever seen before. With titanic red wings and a wide, toothy maw, the Ichor Dragon swooped downwards at the tower, taking the top off as it flew past with an echoing crack and a thunderous cry.

"We need to get over there. Now!" Jaune said as he began to dart off in the direction of Beacon Tower, calling to the others, "C'mon! She can't win this on her own!"

"... damn, he can certainly pull people to a cause," Shoto muttered to himself as he raced after the blonde knight, slicing through various Grimm as he went.

And Izuku, without another moment of hesitation, followed after the blonde knight. _We really have come a long way, Jaune. But something tells me that the journey ahead is even longer than this._

 _Hope we can push through it._

 _(meanwhile, atop Beacon Tower, Pyrrha's POV)_

 _Damnit. So, this is the power of a Maiden. Really, I should've expected no less._ Pyrrha thought to herself as she stood from the rubble of the tower, Conder standing over her with twin blazes in her hands, the fiery mask across her face unwavering as she sneered down at the red headed amazon.

Akuo was off to the side of the room, undamaged, while Milo laid on the ground behind the woman in front of her in pieces. The woman's power suddenly stopped, as she leaned downwards to taunt, "It's truly a shame that you were promised power that was never meant to be yours. Worry not, young one. I shall gladly free you of the burden.

But before I do that, little warrior, I want you to answer something for me. Do you believe in destiny?"

Gritting her teeth and glaring up at the woman who'd killed Ozpin with a rage she had never before felt in her entire life, she asked back, "Do you?"

"... yes."

And that was all the distraction Pyrrha needed to activate her semblance fully. She hadn't done so in a very long time, and even now the toll it could have on her body and brain was potentially devastating. But she didn't care. This woman could not be allowed to roam free with such power, not with the way she could use it so selfishly. If her sacrifice was required to ensure that she was captured and bound...

Then so be it.

Calling upon the various metals still present within the tower, she shoved her hands outwards, catching the false Maiden off guard and sending her to the edge of the tower, only kept there by the twin glass scimitars she summoned to her side and buried halfway into the floor.

"Why you-" but Pyrrha gave her no time to react, reforming the various metals into a gigantic fist that reeled back and punched her off the side of the tower, sending her flying through the air, only to stop and hover with the assistance of her flames, the mask of flame reappearing on her face as she did so.

Calling Akuo back to her side, Pyrrha used her semblance to make a shooting wave of metal, jumping onto it and riding it in a beeline towards the false Maiden, who quickly dodged out of the way and sent a blast of flame to the amazon's back, which was quickly blocked by a hurriedly formed wall of metal and the assistance of Akuo.

"You will not stand in my way any longer!" the false Maiden yelled as she rocketed towards Pyrrha, a long blade in hand, the edge practically glowing from the heat as she sliced through the wall in front of her, the edge scratching against Akuo and leaving a small but notable gash on the shield as the red headed amazon quickly sped away, then reforming the metal into a sword twice her size and swung it at the false Maiden, intending to hit her out of the air and get this fight back to the ground.

However, she managed to dodge the attack, a wide grin on her face as she prepared to fire off another blast. However, Pyrrha had already accounted for this possibility, suddenly throwing Akuo at her opponent and managing to catch her off guard, giving her the chance to redirect her blade and catch the false Maiden in the side, sending her sprawling through the air and down to the ground, hitting with a cavernous boom and a cloud of dust springing up and surrounding her.

 _Good. Now-_

Suddenly, another roar from behind interrupted her train of thought as she was suddenly hit with a blast of wind and sent sprawling off course, only saved by the metal she redirected from the blade and managed to catch herself on it. She'd forgotten about the dragon. Seriously, it was practically half a mile long, how do you forget about something like that?!

 _No matter. I need to ensure that false Maiden doesn't escape._

Pyrrha then called Akuo back to her side, rocketing downwards on the wave made of metal with the roaring of the Ichor Dragon at her back.

 _(meanwhile, Beacon's Central Courtyard, 3rd person POV)_

The figure landed with a cracking boom, causing a cloud of dust to form around them and preventing anyone from seeing them. Was it Pyrrha or Cinder? Izuku couldn't tell, nor did he have time to confirm, as he and the others were currently dealing with Grimm on all sides as they made their way further forwards, slicing through bone and flesh alike as the enemy began to thin, finally allowing them to get close enough to assist their armored friend.

Flying down on a wave of metal, jumping right in front of the billowing cloud of dust that had formed above the impact, was Pyrrha, breathing in deep gulps of air as the wave of metal she'd rode on dissipated, her shield the only thing barely keeping her on a single knee.

"You insolent cur! How dare you think to take _me_ from the skies!" the woman from the crater yelled as she leapt from the cloud, her scimitars drawn to bare as the Ichor Dragon roared behind her, swooping in synch with her attack.

This show of force, however, caused the Grimm around Izuku and the others to thin significantly more, to the point that they could assist their friend more directly. Without a second to lose, Izuku, with Ruby in tow, drew their scythes and clashed with Cinder's blades, the force catching her off guard as the force of their combined swings forced her back and away from Pyrrha.

Shoto, seeing the Ichor Dragon overhead, stabbed his makeshift sword into the ground in front of him and summoning a glacier of such magnitude that it outclassed even the one that he'd unleashed against Hanta, the strain visible for everyone to see. Assisting with his plan, Weiss, lined the glacier with gravity Glyphs, strain on her face also visible from just how much force this plan required. Jaune stood with the two, kneeling with his hands clasped in concentration as Paladin Mode activated once more, and Lancelot climbed to the very top of the glacier, his gigantic blade at the ready.

And down swooped the dragon with another thunderous roar, its eyes set on the group of people who'd dared to try and harm its master, only to find itself being drawn along a glacier by his wing, and grasped by an intense, invisible force form which it couldn't escape as it flew straight towards a flash of white at the top of the ice. Bony wing and ghostly sword met, Jaune's face contorting with effort as he and Lancelot held on with everything they had, trying their best to win this battle of attrition. After a few seconds of waiting, Weiss upping the ante on her gravity Glyphs and Shoto doing his best to ensure that the glacier held from all of this force being placed upon it, the wing finally gave, the bone snapping as the blade passed under and began to rip through its leathery, crimson wing like a knife through wet paper, forming a gash so large that, as the dragon was launched several feet back into the air as a result of the gravity Glyphs, it crashed to the ground below in a heap as it tried hopelessly to flap its wings and escape the ground.

But while to beast was now grounded, and the three who brought it down were currently catching their breath, it was nowhere near dead, taking a few, shaky steps to rise again and give another cry of anger, the split in the wing that they had made beginning to slowly, but surely, stitch itself together again, the bone broken beneath the dragon's flesh inching ever so slowly back into place.

Pyrrha rose from the ground as Ruby was flung back, caught by the red headed amazon while Izuku clashed swords with Cinder herself, their brief meeting consisting of a flurry of metallic clangs, magical discharges, and buckshot loaded kicks as the two jumped about, meeting only briefly before separating again, unwilling to stay still and give the other a chance to think.

They clashed again, Izuku glaring daggers into the false Maiden as she smiled back, only giving the slightest force to match Izuku's own Full Cowl, now back down to 9% power. Truth be told, it was the most power he could output at the moment, at least without injuring himself.

"Aw, the fighter finally got some scars. How quaint," Cinder taunted, making a jab at Izuku's new scars that had only recently been healed midway through his fight with Adam, though this insult went unanswered as the green haired inheritor held the clash, his opponent's overconfident smirk never leaving her lips.

"Is this really the best you can do? I saw the way you fought in the tournament. You're nowhere near the apex of power you demonstrated. I am far worthier of your full power than that boy you call leader. Now stop holding back so I can crush you and that brass-armored cur properly!" Cinder yelled as she applied more force to the clash, winning it and sending Izuku tumbling backwards, barely managing to catch himself by burying Tempest into the ground and skid to a stop, bringing the weapon to bare in a brief flurry of motion, again taking the same stance that he'd used to fight Adam.

With a quick nod to Ruby and Pyrrha, the sounds of the Ichor Dragon limping behind them, and the battle cries of their friends holding off what Grimm had wandered toward their battlefield, they charged at the false Maiden from all sides, Izuku bouncing off of his boots as the shots boosted him ever onwards, Ruby making full use of her semblance, becoming a streak of red and silver with her scythe ready to strike, and Pyrrha, with Akuo in hand, summoned a final wave of metal to launch at her enemy, blood leaking from her nose via the strain it had put on her. This was it. It was all or nothing.

"ENOUGH!"

And a ring-shaped blast of pure flame emanated outwards from where she stood, knocking all six of them to the ground, and ever destroying the Grimm that Shoto, Jaune, and Weiss had been fighting against while Ruby and Izuku had assisted Pyrrha. And yet, despite all their efforts, despite grounding the Ichor Dragon; temporary though that solution may have been; despite throwing everything they had into this fight, to at least scrape out a victory by the skin of their teeth, it wasn't enough to combat the false Maiden. They had lost.

With an arrogant gait to her walk, she smiled maliciously as she observed the fallen bodies of those who had been foolish enough to try and stop her. What could they do? She was the Fall Maiden. She was unstoppable. She finally had back what had been taken from her. She finally had the power her family had lost so long ago.

 _But was this worth it? Was this worth the sacrifice? The lies? The betrayals? Was this worth abandoning the only people who'd treated her like family; like a sister? Was this truly what you wanted?_

As quickly as those traitorous thoughts had surfaced; the voice of her old mentor echoing through her mind and causing her smile to falter ever so slightly; she stomped them out, giving the same, unchanging answer to every single question posed. Yes. Of course it was. It had to be.

Otherwise, everything she'd gone through would've been for nothing. And she would not let this rabble delay what she wished any longer than they already had.

The Ichor Dragon had finally made its way over to their battleground, limping from the loss of its slowly healing wing with a pained, and rather angered, gleam in its eye. It lowered its head to where its master softened her smile, stroking its snout with a gentle touch as she asked, "Does it hurt?"

It whimpered in response, causing her to smile further as she stated, "In due time, you'll have revenge on those who caused you this much pain. But first..."

A bow of glass quickly formed within her hand, striking the red-headed amazon right through the heel in barely half a second, the sound of a tendon being snapped reverberating through the air and sending her to her knees. She tried to get to her feet, defend her friends, but her right leg remained limp and useless. Even if she lived through the day, even if she got her tendon repaired, she would never fully recover from a wound of that precision and ruthlessness.

And Cinder would ensure that she did not live to see another sunrise.

She used the glass heel of her shoe to kick Pyrrha onto her side, then stomping it down on her stomach and causing her to lose all the breath she held in her lungs with a loud cough. With a slow tension in the air, she aimed her bow's face to the center of the amazon's chest, directly over her heart, and knocked an arrow to the string.

"You never answered my question from before, little warrior. Do you believe in destiny?"

Pyrrha girt her teeth together as she looked up at the false Maiden, the woman who, by all means, would be her death. The others were likely still recovering from her blast, something she'd only been able to resist by the skin of her teeth. There were no reinforcements. All Might was nowhere to be seen, likely still handling the chaos in Vale along with the other teachers and senior hunters. Most everyone had been evacuated by now, and even the White Fang had pulled out. No miracle was going to save her. This was the end.

And yet as she looked upon Cinder's smile, arrow pointed at her heart, she saw something. Something that had led to the downfall of many a ruler in older times, when monarchies ruled with iron fists and silver tongues. Overconfidence. And from that feeling, she saw so many fates that the false Maiden could meet. The possibilities were almost endless. But through it all there was one, unrelenting constant. This would be the apex of Cinder's power. It was just a feeling, something to take solace in before she perished, but she was sure of it.

And so, with one final, rebelliously content smile, she stared right into the eye of her enemy, the false Maiden's bowstring drawn behind her cheek, and echoed the answer Cinder had given her before. "Yes."

And the arrow flew, striking her right through her sternum and piercing her heart without obstruction. The Invincible Warrior was dead.

 _(Ruby's POV)_

 _No..._ she thought to herself, slumping to the ground after only managing to get halfway up Cresent Rose laying by her side as she watched on in horror.

 _No..._ she thought as Cinder placed her hand to Pyrrha's face, the amazon's body suddenly turning a bright orange before scattering into the winds, an uncountable flurry of embers that left behind the empty shell of her armor.

And as the anger began to build and swell within her, she unleashed a furious cry of rage and spite, yelling out to the false Maiden, "STOOOOOOOP!"

And the world went white.

 _(Izuku's POV)_

The green haired inheritor, shielded his eyes from the oncoming light, seemingly emanating from Ruby herself, blinding everyone in the vicinity and keeping them from fully rising off the ground. It was comforting, yet simultaneously terrifying. Like a power that could rival that of All Might himself.

The light persisted for several seconds before it eventually faded, its source suddenly falling to the ground, unconscious. A pained wail rang out from the false Maiden as she clutched her left side tightly, falling to the ground as her cries echoed throughout the courtyard. Above her stood the giant black dragon, it's jaw open in a seeming roar. And yet, no sound emerged. Not even a twitch of movement could be seen from it. It had been frozen in place, held there by the same power that was causing the false Maiden to cry out in pain.

Cinder rose from her spot with shaky legs, her left eye shriveled shut and her left arm covered in horrible, decaying scars, her glass bow seemingly undamaged in her tight grip. Her good eye glared down at the rose-themed reaper, still out cold from the amount of power she'd used, saying to her with a hoarse voice, "You have no right to do this! I will not let this go unpunished!

"You will pay for this insult with your life," she declared as she aimed her bow straight at Ruby's chest, in the same spot where she'd shot Pyrrha seconds before, and-

 **SHING!**

.

..

…

"ERRRRAAAAAAUUUUGH!"

As quickly as she had begun to lift her bow, Izuku had leapt from where he'd landed and, with Tempest in hand, severed her left arm from its socket by the shoulder, cleaving through her flesh like warm butter. Then, using the momentum of the first strike, he turned into the second one, cleaving through her legs by their kneecaps and causing her to land on her back with a loud thud.

She writhed in pain, screaming out even louder as she curled up, trying her best to stop the bleeding as Izuku stood above her. There was no pity in his eyes. No apology. Only rage. Pure, unrelenting, unforgiving rage. His sclera were as black as the night sky, and his fluorescent emerald eyes glowed like stars. And they were staring daggers into her.

He raised Tempest into the air with a backhand grip, despite the weapon's protests, humming as it tried to beg its master to stop what he was about to do. He could hear some of the others behind him rise to their feet and do the same, asking him to stop. But why should he? She'd done so much wrong, caused so much pain. She'd killed Pyrrha.

But then, she looked back up, a stream of tears running down from her right eye, her pupils dilating and mouth moving, as though trying to say something. She looked terrified. And it was the acknowledgment of that fact that made Izuku stop.

 _What the hell am I thinking? I'd be no better. Pyrrha... she wouldn't want this._

And then, right in front of him, a portal of dark mist emerged, causing him to jump backwards and narrowly dodge an incoming downward thrust from a black scimitar, which pierced through the ground as easily as Tomura could destroy thing with his bare hands. If he'd been just a second slower, he'd be dead.

And emerging from that portal was the same white-haired man he'd fought at the Vale docks and the Central Vale Park, now donning a black coat with a few more accomplices behind him. Izuku heard those behind him drawing weapons and racing to his side, Shoto and Weiss coming to his side directly while Jaune went full Paladin Mode, Lancelot towering over all of them as the stalemate went on.

Then, suddenly appearing with his own scythe in hand, was Qrow, who'd landed next to Ruby in order to ensure her safety, glaring out at the group of villains who'd suddenly appeared, saying to them, "Listen, you white-haired psychopath. Get out of here right this second, or you're going to regret coming here."

"Oh wow, I'm shaking in my boots," Tomura responded, not really looking at the red eyed reaper as he continued his glare off with Izuku, answering, "We never really planned to stay for that long, anyway. Twice!" He ordered one of the people with him, who immediately obeyed and picked up the now unconscious body of Cinder and walked back through Kurogiri's portal. Maybe they had a healer on the other side?

But such a thought was discarded soon after conception as he and Tomura continued their stare off. One with the eyes of an angered destroyer, and the other with the eyes of a now corrected defender. Neither gave ground nor gave any. It was a stalemate.

And without a word uttered between them, Tomura and his posse left through Kurogiri's portal and disappeared into the night with a hollow wisp of the wind, the only thing evidencing their arrival was Cinder's disappearance and the pools of blood from the severing of her limbs. His stomach dropped as he thought of that. Why had he gotten that angry? He shouldn't have done that, no matter the circumstances.

… right?

Izuku sighed as he let go of Full Cowling. How long had he been keeping it active, on and off and on again? All night? He couldn't quite remember. But he did want to make sure that the others were okay, especially his teammates and Yang. After that... it would be... good to... finally... rest...

And he fell to the ground, the adrenaline that had kept him upright for so many hours since the battle began finally losing its effect as he crashed into a deep slumber, the last words he heard being the concerned cries of his friends as he slipped away from consciousness.

 **A/N: I hope I did the final episode of Volume 3 justice with this chapter. It's been a heck of a ride, and it still isn't quite done yet. There's just one more chapter to do after this one, and Volume 3 will officially be done! Thank you guys so much for reading this! And now, on to the review responses!**

 **Review Responses:**

 **Thunder Dragon: I think that'll be answered in the next chapter. And while Izuku has come a long way, he certainly does have a mountain to climb, though maybe not quite as steep as it was at first.**

 **Odin's Eye: That was actually one of my favorite Norse Myths, especially the grandeur and scale of everything going to hell. It's a glorious battle, but a difficult one. Well, you know the old saying. What doesn't kill only makes you angrier and far more powerful.**

 **ZWarrior4life: You're welcome! And I believe that this chapter proved that they've got plenty of fight left in them!**

 **Loki's Tongue: That is very true. It might be a bit, but they will come back stronger form this.**

 **Uruk-Hai: While that is an amazing request, I won't be able to get to it for a while. I'd be willing to post it on my story page as an official idea, but I wouldn't be able to get to it for a while. But I do love this idea. Imagine the pure havoc Smaug could bring to them if he were actually in Remnant... I wonder if he and Kevin would get along...**

 **Also, I do like the idea of a half-dragon protagonist in a sequel... so awesome!**

 **ABYSSALISK: I do want to try my hand at those, but we'll just have to wait and see, for now. It isn't as prominent here, but I promise that All Might's fight with All for One will have major effects on the story at large.**

 **King Wyrm: You're welcome! I've looked at her challenges and noted a few of them. They're all pretty interesting either way. And yes, there will be great and grand things to come of this battle!**

 **Midgardsormr Jr: You're quite welcome! I haven't really played many MMOs, but I have heard good things about it!**

 **Dragon Fan: This idea literally made me go and watch all of Fate Apocrypha in the span of two days, and I regret not doing that sooner. I'll definitely have to keep this one in mind when I finish up Team STIK!**

 **Dreamweaver543: I think he'd be flattered if he were here. Unfortunately, securing Vale is gonna take a bit, but I'll give him the message!**

 **Enku: What comes after a war can often be more damaging than the war itself. It'll take some time, but they'll get through this.**

 **KongKing94: He's not quite done yet. The Symbol of Peace, powers or no, will keep on smiling in the face of danger!**

 **Guest: Right you are! And I believe we have more than a few candidates on hand...**

 **And that's it for this chapter! Thank you guys so much for reading! Tune in next time for a true conclusion to the third Volume of RWBY!**

 **Next Chapter: Oct. 28th**

 **Seeya in the next one!**


	42. What Comes After

**A/N: I underestimated how long Dragon Quest XI is. Man, I've got a long way to go. Well, enough of me rambling about video games. Enjoy the chapter!**

 **Disclaimer: I do not own RWBY or My Hero Academia. They belong to Monty Oum, Kohei Horikoshi, and their respective publishing companies. Please support the official releases.**

 **I do not own the cover image.**

Chapter 42: What Comes After

" _It's okay, Izuku. I gotcha..."_

 _"He'll be fine. He has to be fine..."_

 _"Remember kid, the keyword is 'Shatter.'"_

 _"...ssstttTOOOOOP!"_

Izuku jolted forward with a start, sweat dripping off his brow as the blanket that had covered him fell forwards onto his lap, panting as he tried to calm himself from what he'd just heard through the haze of sleep. There were bandaged wrapped tightly around his body, especially across his torso, and he could even feel a few wrapped on his face. How had he gotten-

"Izuku!" he heard his mother slide open a wooden door with a loud click as she rushed to his side and hugged him tightly, saying, "You're awake! Oh, thank Oum. You're alright!"

"... mom..." he whispered out as he returned the hug, asking, "What... happened? The last thing I remember is-"

And the memories hit him like a freight train, flashing through his mind one after the other. The battle against Adam, healing Yang's arm, battling his way through hordes of Grimm, finding Jaune mid-battle, their brief skirmish against Cinder, and...

 _No. No, no no no no no no no no-_

"Izuku! Shh... it's okay... you're here... you're safe..." his mother said as she tried to comfort him, causing him to realize that he'd begun to hyperventilate and tried to get his lungs under control.

"Pyrrha... I couldn't... no... damnit..." Izuku said as tears began to fall from his eyes, shaking and trembling as he did so. He couldn't hold it in. And he didn't want to. "Damnit..."

"Hey, is everything... holy shit, you're awake."

With reddened eyes, Izuku glanced at the open doorway to see Shoto with a relieved look on his face, wearing a casual gray shirt and black shorts as he raced across the room and kneeled next to his mother, saying with blunt honesty, "You're a wreck. C'mon. Some fresh air will do you some good."

With Inko assisting, Shoto managed to get Izuku to the front of the house, taking the time to say hello to Makoto on the way out. She brought the two teammates tea, which the half and half leader graciously accepted. Inko offered to stay with the two of them, but Shoto then pointed out that she'd hardly slept since Izuku arrived, and that she deserved some rest after everything she'd done.

And so, the two were left alone at the front of Ryuji and Makoto's house, with yellowing Oak trees waving in the slight breeze. And with that, the first question came.

"... is everyone okay?"

Shoto sighed at that, placing the tea he'd been drinking next to him while Izuku simply stared at his own. He hadn't even sipped it. "It's... pretty complicated. You sure you want to know?"

Izuku nodded, though it seemed to be halfhearted. Shoto sighed as he looked up at the autumn colors around them, saying, "I'll be blunt. My dad's gone back to Atlas. He looked pretty spooked by something. Qrow came and got us away from the fighting, and explained that Ozpin is... well, not really around, anymore. Jaune's been in shock for the past week, hardly talks to anyone except Ren and Nora. And they're not doing so hot either. They've been over at Taiyang's place for the past week, but Ruby and Yang are still out cold. At least, as far as I know. Maybe whatever gods exist will be kind enough to give us three surprises today.

"... how the hell did you heal Yang's arm anyway? I thought healing other people with your own Aura was supposed to be impossible outside of healing semblances."

"... I have no idea. I just... I wanted to help her. I didn't want to fail her again."

Shoto slumped back a bit as he responded, "I won't say I'm not surprised, but it's also a bit underwhelming. Just a bit. Well other than that, Weiss got taken back to Atlas by her dad because of everything that happened, and Blake... she ran away. That's really all I know about where those two are right now. I hope they're doing alright, but I don't think Yang will take too kindly to the news about Blake."

"What about Bakugo? And Tenya? Where are they?"

"Bakugo... disappeared."

"... what?" Izuku said, looking up from his tea for the first time since they'd begun talking.

"I mean it. He just... disappeared. He left his scroll behind, no clue to his whereabouts, nothing. Dust on the wind. We don't know where he is. I don't know if we'll ever see him again."

"... no. No, I think we will. Bakugo does what he does for a reason. No way he would just up and vanish unless it was important."

"Well, let's hope," Shoto said as he took another sip from his teacup. Then silence came between the two. It was uncomfortable, and damn near unbreakable in the moment that another breeze, stronger than the last, shook the branches and knocked a few leaves from their places and scattering them across the open air.

"... Tenya... his legs are shot to hell. Whoever the hell he and Bakugo fought against really did a number on them, but... he's got permanent damage. His legs were spared from getting severed completely, but his nerves were practically shredded to bits. He got sent off to Mistral about five days ago. He's still unconscious, as far as I know. I haven't heard anything about him since then. He's... he'll probably never walk again, not unless they do some major surgery and have access state of the art Atlas cybernetics. And I doubt they want to risk either of those."

Izuku looked out at the trees, wiping tears from his eyes before they could fall again. "Damnit. I feel useless."

"I know."

"I couldn't help any of them. I couldn't be there for Tenya, I don't know if I'll ever be able to face Jaune again, and... damnit. Why the hell did she have to die? Why did anyone have to die?"

"I can't answer that. I wanted to help her too, but Cinder got the drop on us. I'm pretty sure she broke my Aura with the blast. Point is, we couldn't do anything.

"But if we ever see her again... I'm not going to let her take anyone else. _We_ won't let her."

Shoto placed a hand on Izuku's shoulder, turning his head to meet his partner's eyes as he continued, "I know that it's gonna be tough. But we'll come back from this. It might just be the two of us, but we're still Team STIK. Though, I suppose it's more like Team SI at this point."

Izuku took a long sip from his teacup, placing it down on the wooden floor with an audible clack as he stood up. "I'm gonna go check on the others. You wanna come with?"

"I probably should. One of us needs to be ready just in case, and I don't think you're quite ready to be fighting Grimm right out of bed."

"True, true," Izuku said good-naturedly, though on the inside he was far from smiling. He'd failed. They hadn't spoken much on it, but Pyrrha was dead. One of their friends was dead. One of the strongest people they knew had been killed by a woman with powers they hardly knew anything about. And while the silence between them had somewhat lessened in discomfort, they both knew that everything had changed. Things would never be 'normal' again.

It was a terrifying thought. How Izuku wished it wasn't true.

 _(a few minutes later, Xiao Long household, Izuku's POV)_

The knock on the door to the humble Xiao Long household was a short one. The log cabin carried the noise well, and within seconds the door creaked open. In front of him stood the same blonde man that he'd seen on his last visit to the island; Taiyang Xiao Long.

"You're... you're awake! Come in, come in!" the blonde man said as he smiled widely, ushering the two inside and sitting them at the couch in the back of the living room. "Do you need anything? Water? Something to eat?"

"We're fine, Mr. Xiao Long. Thank you," Shoto answered.

"Ah. Okay..." Taiyang said as he sat in one of the chairs saying to them, "Jaune went for a walk with his teammates, so they'll probably be back in about ten minutes or so. I guess you're here to check on how the girls are doing?"

"Are they okay? Are they awake yet? Is-"

"Whoa, whoa, don't wear yourself out, kid. You only just woke up," Taiyang said. "Ruby woke up a little earlier. She and Qrow are talking some stuff out. Stuff I... can't really explain to her."

"What about Yang? Is she okay?"

Taiyang's excitement seemed to ebb at that. "She's... she's taking things really hard. Especially since her partner ran away. Her arm's still recovering, but she should be able to move it again in about two weeks or so.

"Thank you for that," Taiyang said with a grateful smile on his face. "I heard that she was able to keep her arm because of you, whatever it was you did. So, thank you.

"Now, go on up and see her. I think it would do her some good to see a friend."

With a quick flurry of nods and a brief thank you, Izuku stood from the couch and went towards the staircase as quickly as his legs would let him. And yet, for some reason, he stopped just before he could even go beyond the first step. How was he supposed to face her? What would he say? What _could_ he say? What-

"Hey. Kid. Quit staring off into space. You'll clog up the stairs."

Izuku suddenly snapped out of his thoughts, looking up to see Qrow walking down the stairs, his arm crossed as he looked at Izuku with a concerned gaze. "You here to see 'em?"

"Yes."

"... well, I think we need to talk for a quick minute. Those two are probably chatting right about now, anyway," Qrow said as he leaned against the wall, taking a brief look at his flask before stowing it back inside of his shirt. "So... you told anyone?"

Izuku shook his head in response.

"Good. As much as I'd like to tell them more, I think Ruby already knows too much about this."

"Wait, she knows? How much does she know?" Izuku asked, concern lining his words.

"Not much, but even that's more than she should know about. You've gotta keep your promise. There's a time and place to tell people about things that're this big, and this definitely isn't one of them. I only told Ruby about her eyes because of what happened to her, but everything else stays off limits. Got it?"

"... okay."

Qrow sighed as he came off of the wall and placed a hand on Izuku's shoulder. "There's also the fact that you're undertrained. Yeah, you're a damn good fighter, but you've really only been active for just a little under a year. That, and you need extra help with that weapon of yours. I'll only be around for about three weeks, maybe a month if you're lucky, but I'll be taking you under my wing in the meantime. Alright?"

"Yessir!" Izuku said with a determination relit in his eyes.

"Well, I think I've held you up long enough. Go," Qrow said as he opened up the way to the upper floor, Izuku shaking his head clear of doubts as his feet softly echoed against the wood.

A click was heard before he ever made it all the way up the stairs. By the time he'd gotten there, on either side of the front hall was a door, the one to the left wide open. With inaudible steps, he wandered over to it. And then, he saw her.

She was looking out the window at a yellowing oak tree, seemingly lost in a sea of her own thoughts, with a plain, faded yellow shirt and her right arm in a sing across her body. Yang was here. She was... she was alright.

Izuku almost rushed into the room, wanting to see what he could do, if there was anything he could do at all. But something stopped him. This was a different Yang. She seemed down. Defeated. Demoralized. Everything she usually wasn't.

And so, as quietly as he could, he entered, grabbing a chair from the far side of the room and placing it down in front of himself, barely a foot away from her bed. She was so engrossed with the thing occupying her sight that she didn't even notice. Just as quietly, he sat down, his mind racing and his stomach flip-flopping with nervousness. Not the nervousness that one would associate with excitement: he was afraid. Afraid that he would say the wrong thing. Make things worse.

But he had to take the dive eventually. And so, he spoke up.

"Hey."

A twitch, ever so slight. Blonde hair slowly tussled about as Yang slowly turned her head, blinking mid-turn as she seemed to form tears in her eyes. Their gazes met. And trails of tears began to run down her cheeks.

"I'm-"

But before Izuku got the chance to say anything, the blonde brawler reached over and pulled him into a tight hug with her good arm. He could feel her shaking as she buried her face into his shoulder, like she was scared that this was a dream she didn't want to end.

"Y-you're here. You're r-really here," Yang said as she continued to sob.

And without a word, Izuku returned the hug, letting Yang have her time to let her feelings out. The same she'd done for him in that small closet just a few days ago. And so, with a tight grip around each other and a slight rock to relax her, they stayed close, neither knowing, nor caring, how much time passed.

 _(a few days later, Midoriya Household, Toshinori's POV)_

The gangly man was tempted to whistle in awe at the size of the house he was in front of. The style and architecture were unashamedly eastern Mistralian, and yet despite the size, it seemed welcoming all the same. It probably had to do with the fact that there was a mix of both Mistralian Cherry Blossom trees and Vale's signature Oaks spread throughout it, but either way, it certainly looked rather... comforting.

 _I wish you could've stayed for a bit longer, Torino. You'd have liked it here._

But he shook the thoughts of his mentor from his head. He couldn't get distracted. Remember why you're here in the first place, he told himself.

He gave the sliding door three loud raps. He could hear the sound echoing throughout the house, hoping that he didn't startle them too much. A few seconds later, the door slid open to reveal a giant of a man with short and spiky gray hair and a green robe over his shoulders.

"I'm guessing you're Ryuji Midoriya?" Toshinori asked.

"Yes. And you Toshinori Yagi. Were great huntsman," Ryuji replied. "Why you here?"

"It's about Izuku. Actually, I was hoping to talk to all four of you about it. If you're okay with that."

Ryuji simply nodded, and allowed Toshinori to enter the house as he went to inform the others of their guest while the gangly man removed his shoes before he entered the house proper. Despite the size of the place, the interior was rather humble, only having minor decorations across the place to spice things up a bit. None of his apartments had been nearly this nice.

Eventually, Toshinori was guided by Makoto to their dining room, where everyone was served tea and the conversation began. Inko, despite her initial fluster at the Symbol of Hope being in her house, had been rather quiet throughout most of the conversation. It was a scary type of silence, one that reminded him of when Torino was _really_ pissed off. And, as he finished his explanation, he knew why.

"And... well, I'm asking that I be allowed to assist Qrow with his training while I'm still available."

He'd been sure to not include anything about One for All or All for One, or the Maidens and the other outliers. He simply stated that Izuu had caught his eye at the beginning of the year and that he was rather inspired by his determination.

"I'm sorry, but I have to decline."

Inko's statement left no room for argument. She was dead set on this. She didn't want to lose her son, that much was obvious, and if Toshinori was in her situation, he'd probably be doing the exact same thing.

"But mom-"

"Izuku, I can't do this anymore. I saw you getting injured during the tournament. I know you fought at Beacon. And look at what happened to you," Inko said gesturing to the scar across Izuku's face and the markings on his arms and legs. "You could've died! One of your friends _did_ die! I don't know if that'll be you or not! I don't want to lose you too.

"I'm sorry, All Might, but I won't risk my son like this. I know he still wants to be a huntsman, but we can get him to another academy. It doesn't need to be Beacon."

Izuku didn't try to argue any further, instead slumping down into his chair, defeated, his eyes glazing over as he began to stare at the table. Toshinori kept his head up, but he was feeling pretty guilty as well. He'd offered, and Inko had given every possible explanation as to decline.

"If I may speak up," Makoto said as she placed down her own cup of tea, saying, "Inko, I know you're worried about Izuku. I am as well. I was also worried about Hisashi when he first began training to become a huntsman. Every day, I wanted to march up to that school and pull him out because of his injuries. I coddled him, he said as much himself. It took some time, and a lot of arguments, but we came to an agreement that he stop getting so recklessly injured all the time. And, in time, the injuries became less and less. And when his semblance was unlocked? Nary a scratch on the boy. Izuku has a long way to go before he's anything close to where Hisashi was in terms of combat ability, I'm not foolish enough to think otherwise. But if you don't let him fail now, if you don't let him fail here, where he can learn from his mistakes, then he _will_ fail out there, where he might be around to learn from them."

Inko was stunned into silence. There was no retort, no explanation, only a face of contemplation. What was she supposed to do? Truth be told, Toshinori didn't have much to offer beyond what he'd already explained.

Then, Ryuji spoke up. "Daughter-in-law. You are right to worry. But this is grandson's choice. My apologies, but he is adult. We will always worry for him. Is partial job. But we cannot hold him back any longer than necessary. I learned when Hisashi left. It is painful, no lie. Will not be easy. But, in end, is best choice. For both of you."

It was Toshinori's turn to be stunned. Ryuji was a lot smarter than he let on, and the two had given every reason why Izuku should train under him. But still, it didn't feel quite right. He couldn't just up and start training the kid without more of an explanation. He couldn't tell them much, but... maybe...

"Mrs. Midoriya," Toshinori said, preparing himself for what he was about to say. "There is another reason why I've asked to train your son. And, truth be told, it might be the most important. He's shown great promise, yes, but he's also shown that he has both the mindset and determination of a hunter. I believe, full-heartedly, that he has the potential to become the next Symbol of Hope."

And now everyone was staring at him with shock and awe. While Makoto managed to maintain most of her composure, the other three were practically dropping their jaws to the floor. Not that he could really blame them, especially Izuku, but it was the only way to say as much as he could without putting them in any more danger than he already was.

"... okay. On one condition," Inko said.

"Name it."

"Wherever he's going, once your training is done... promise me he'll come back. Okay?"

"I... I can't give you anything concrete. But I'll do the best I can."

"That's all I'm asking. And Toshinori? Don't you die either. That boy needs you. Alright?"

"... okay. I'll do what I can."

 _(three weeks later, Xiao Long Household, Yang's POV)_

Yang gingerly tested the tendons of her arm, opening and closing her fist as much as she could before placing it down again. She almost had full control of her hand back. Okay. Now-

 **CRASH!**

And glowing red markings and crimson hair filled her vision, and the sound of a blade cutting air was all she heard as she felt her right arm being severed-

 _No. No, it's not real, it's not real, it's not real-_

"Yang!"

She felt her father's hand on her shoulder as she suddenly found herself back in the same living room she'd been sitting in before. She let herself breath a relieved sigh. It was okay. She was okay. But...

 _Dammit._

She brushed her dad's hand off her shoulder as she stood, saying that she was fine before she moved to the window, briefly stopping to clean up the glass that had been shattered by accident. She could see a few of the others outside the house, doing whatever they did to train. Jaune and Ren were currently meditating while Nora scribbled down some notes in her journal, and Shoto was currently somewhere isolated, working on some kind of project to help his progress, and Izuku and Ruby were probably training with Qrow, wherever they went to do that.

"Dad?"

"Hm? What's up?" Taiyang asked.

"Once my arm's better. I... I want to start training again."

…

"I can't do that, Yang."

"But-" Yang tried to argue as she whipped around, only to be stopped by her father's serious expression. She was in for it.

"I mean it. You almost lost your arm, you jump at almost any sudden noises, and your episodes are so random that I don't know if it would even be safe! Not to mention the fact that you _almost died!_ I don't want to lose you. Hell, I don't even want you to train until I know you're okay-

"Well guess what, dad?! I'm! Not! Okay! Alright?! There! I said it! I'm not okay! I haven't been okay for the last thirteen years of my fucking life, and I've had to deal with it by myself because you were going through a lot too, and I didn't want to add to your problems. I'm not okay, dad. I don't know if I'll ever be okay.

"But I can't just sit around, doing nothing, while my friends are working their asses off getting prepared to go out there and fight anyway. I... I need to do _something_."

Taiyang's expression didn't take long to soften. And after what seemed like an eternity, her father's concerned voice broke the silence. "You... that long?"

Yang nodded in confirmation. She hadn't told anyone just how much she was hurting, and the only other person who even had a clue to how badly she'd been damaged was Izuku. She hadn't really even meant to tell anyone. It kinda just... spilled out.

And her father suddenly pulled her into a tight hug, saying to her, "I'm so sorry. I'm sorry you had to go through all of this on your own. If... if you think it'll help, I'll train you. But please be careful, alright?

"And please, try to talk to someone about this. I mean, I'm a good listener, but I don't know if I'd be able to really get what you're going through. I'm no psychologist."

Yang chuckled at that. "At this point, I think someone just listening would be enough. Besides, I know you're gonna get busy here in a few weeks. I'll... I'll try." And she started hugging back. "Thanks, dad. For everything."

 _(a week later, an old work shed, Shoto's POV)_

 _Okay... just wire this here, connect this, and... alright. They're done._

Shoto leaned back as he admired what had taken up much of his time over the past few weeks. It had taken many tires and missteps, and a few explosions, but he'd done it. They were done. Sitting on the table across from him were his new weapons, Veorfolnir and Niohoggr, and set of twin Dao blades that were practically identical with the exception of their blades, the former being a crystalline blue and the latter being a deep, fiery red.

With a bit of a flourish to test its balance, Shoto quickly sheathed Veorfolnir into the scabbard, tightening the straps of the blade belt and letting it hang from his left hip. And yet, as he reached for Niohoggr to do the same, he hesitated. Why had he made another blade to concentrate his left side in the first place? He still didn't want to use it. It was too painful. He couldn't-

 _And you'd be willing to let someone else die, again, because you're too scared to use the other half of your own power? I thought you were better than that._

Shoto flinched at that thought. His outstretched hand began to shake and quiver, and though he tried to stop the movement his limb would not obey him. He'd kept it under wraps from the others, but he'd been affected by Pyrrha's death too. They were dealing with their own grief. This was just how he chose to deal with his. But...

His fist clenched as he remembered what had happened to her. They weren't close, they'd hardly even talked to each other, but... he could remember being blasted to the ground, quite literally stunned, and helpless to do anything but use his left side. And he hesitated. For only the smallest of moments, he had hesitated. And it had cost Pyrrha everything. If he had just acted; if he had just decided to grit his teeth and bare the pain and attack, then maybe... maybe she'd still be here.

But she wasn't. And they had to live with that.

With a clenched jaw and determination lining his gaze, he grabbed Niohoggr by the hilt and gave it a similar flourish that he gave Veorfolnir, albeit a bit sloppily, as he wasn't used to using that hand very often, and sheathed it into the same scabbard as Veofolnir, the duel Dao blades now resting together at his left hip.

 _Never again. I am not gonna let anyone else die on my watch. No matter how painful or difficult the path might be, I won't let it happen again. If... if I have to face my parents for that to be true..._

 _So be it._

 _(a few days later, Patch Docks, Qrow's POV)_

Qrow honestly didn't expect his many people to say goodbye to him. Tai, Ruby, Yang, and Izuku? That he expected. However, he did not expect Toshinori Yagi, the remnants of Team JNPR, and Shoto Todoroki to see him off as well. What was this, his birthday?

"Stay safe out there, okay Feather-Hair?" Tai jokingly called his teammate with a hand to his shoulder.

"I told you to quit calling me that, Blondie," Qrow joked back, then saying, "I'll try. Thanks."

A red blur suddenly impacted into his side with a death grip around his torso, saying, "I'm gonna miss you, uncle Qrow!"

"I'll miss you too, Speedy," Qrow said with a gentle hand on the girl's shoulder. He looked up to Yang, the scar on her right arm now covered in an orange bandana with Ember Celica's new designs now dangling from her wrists, and gave her a firm nod, which the blonde returned in kind. They didn't have to speak to know what was technically unspoken. Yang was getting better, albeit slowly, but she was getting better. It was a small comfort, but it _was_ something nonetheless. He really had to thank Izuku and Ruby for helping her through this.

Speaking of which, as Ruby let go of his torso and wiped some tears from her eyes, the green haired inheritor stepped up to him. They stayed that way for a few seconds before Izuku simply offered him a hand, saying, "Thanks for all your help. Good luck out there!"

Qrow nearly chuckled at that. But instead, he reached out and shook the offered hand, saying, "Thanks for the gesture, kid, but something tells me that you're gonna need it more than I will."

And then, without another word and the waves of everyone gathered at the docks behind him, Qrow turned to the business at hand. It was time to find Ozpin's key. No way could he let Salem or her flunkies get their hands on it.

 _Though I doubt they'd know he disguised it as a cane._

 _(meanwhile, somewhere in the forests of Vale, Bakugo's POV)_

This had been going on for way too fucking long. It had been a month since he'd left the hospital, and here he sat, in the middle of a forest, tending to a half-dead campfire while his partner was likely going through mental hell and his other teammates were probably trying to do something about everything that had happened. Hell, even with Mint's warning he hadn't really been able to do anything, and now he had no idea where she even was or what was going to happen to her next, or any of the other people he'd met at Beacon for that matter.

"Hey, old bag," he said to the currently stretching figure known to the world as Mitsuki Bakugo, in her signature jacket and slacks with hiking boots and fingerless gloves adorning her hands with a red shirt beneath her jacket.

"Yeah? What is it?" She asked, not taking her attention away from her stretches as she moved from one into the other.

"Why the hell are we even out here? And don't say that it's 'because you need training,' because that's the same goddamn answer you've given me for the past few weeks. Why are we really out here? Because I up and left without any kind of an explanation and I don't want that to be for just some stupid training camp you could've done at any other time."

His mother visibly sighed at this, shifting out of her stretches as if she knew she couldn't avoid the topic any longer. "I know about what happened to you on that ship, Bakugo."

…

Taking his silence as permission to continue, Mitsuki did just that, turning to face her son as she said, "We come from a clan of Berserkers. We were pretty big participants during the faunus war. Hell, I'm pretty sure that people like us are part of the reason that faunus get such a bad rep in places like Atlas and Mistral. We actually originated from Menagerie. We kinda carved it out back when the kingdoms were starting up. I mean, there were faunus appearing all over the world, so some Berserkers did pop up here and there, but Menagerie is really where it all started for us. Most of us up and left the place about a century ago, and we started dying off from there. The whole reason that humanity even offered up Menagerie as an official country is because we were there for a long time, and they assumed they were just making things official. Things haven't really panned out that well since then. I'd say within fifty years, Berserkers are gonna go extinct, or become so rare we may as well _be_ extinct, if we're lucky.

"The reason we're out here is so that you can learn about it. Where we came from, why we exist, that sorta thing. We aren't something the world should forget about, even if not many know we even exist. I know that you wanted an explanation sooner, and I'm sorry that it's coming this late. But I had to know whether or not you were _really_ ready before I did this.

"The first step to getting a handle on being a Berserker is getting a handle on your emotions. For Red types like us, it's primal stuff. Anger specifically. It won't be easy, especially for someone of your temperament, but it's really the only way to use it reliably."

"So what? What if I don't want it?" Bakugo asked, never taking his eyes off of the dying fire in front of him, poking the embers with a stick to make them briefly reignite before dying down again.

Mitsuki sighed as she walked over to her son, sitting down next to him before she lightly hit him upside his head, "This isn't something you can just refuse. It's a part of you, whether you like it or not. And if you don't learn to control it, then the next time it pops up, it _will_ overwhelm you. I've seen what happens to some people who try to use this recklessly, or just ignore it altogether. Every damn time, they're too far gone. And I have to put 'em down.

"I'm not asking you to do this because I want you to become some kind of monster. That's the last thing I want for you. I'm asking you to do this so you _don't_."

And for several moments after that, there was silence between the two, the only noises coming from the slight crackle of their near-dead campfire and a few chirps and squeaks from the surrounding wildlife. Bakugo's grip on the branch he was holding tightened ever so slightly. She was serious. She didn't want him to die. And... he didn't want what happened to his partner to happen to anyone else. Not again. _Never_ again.

"... I'll do it. When do we start?"

 _(meanwhile, somewhere in Mistral, Tenya's POV)_

"In conclusion, Mr. Iida, your nerves have been... almost destroyed beyond repair. You will likely never walk again."

Tenya was hardly paying attention to the man anymore. He knew what they were going to say before they even walked into the room; since he'd first woken up that afternoon. He couldn't move his legs a single inch. There was no pain. No numbness. Nothing. And it was terrifying.

Now it was simply infuriating.

The door shut behind him as his mother was ushered out as well, leaving him alone in a sterile white room, his fists clenched and his jaw tightly shut. Damnit. If only he'd been faster. If only... if only he hadn't been so useless!

"I imagine that they'll be talking about ways to get you your legs back."

A voice, so odd that he nearly jumped at the sound, slowly relaxing as he realized just who it belonged to. Thoth stood across from him against the wall, his face and figure entirely shrouded, giving away nothing as to his intentions.

"They don't have the resources for it. Nor even the technology. At least-"

"Get to the point, Thoth. Why are you even here? We haven't spoken in months, and I imagine that you haven't exactly been skirting around in the meantime."

Thoth sighed as he stood up from the wall, looking over Tenya for a few seconds as he said, "Do you want to walk again?"

"Of course I do. Why wouldn't I? But it's as you said, they simply don't have what they need here in Mistral. It's unfortunate, but it's true."

"Maybe I should've phrased that differently. Tenya Iida. Do you wish to become a huntsman once again? Because if your answer is yes, then I can provide you with what you need to do just that. You have my favor in the palm of your hand. All you'd have to do is enact it."

The silence returned to the room, and an air of opportunity hung over Tenya's head. Thoth wasn't lying. The man certainly had the resources to do what he promised. But it felt... wrong. Why should he be helped when there were so many others who might need it more; who might _deserve_ it. Why him?

 _Because you can help more people. You can stop what happened to your brother, to you, to Vale, from happening to as many as you can reach._

That thought settled the inner argument Tenya was having with himself. This was a second chance to do some sort of good in a world with so much wrong with it. Why the hell was he even hesitating? It was his duty to protect. And if what Thoth was offering could assist him with that, then so be it.

"Thoth. I enact your favor. Please, give me the means to save as many as I can."

Thoth nodded, suddenly snapping his fingers and summoning the **FAVOR** card off of the dresser next to the spectacled boy, saying, "With all the power in my possession, I shall do whatever I can to grant your request.

"I promise on my true name, you will not regret this."

 _(one month later, island of Patch, Izuku's POV)_

Izuku was silent as he finished packing the bag that he hoped would at least last him until they got to Anima's western half. It was mostly an assortment of clothes for different seasons. The trek all the way Mistral was a long one, and they were already asking a lot of Coco to even get them to the furthest edge of the Emerald Forest. Seeing as they weren't official hunters on any vital business, they had to take the long way to the east: on foot and by... ship...

 _Urgh! I'm getting nauseous just thinking about it._

Shaking the thought from his mind, he hoisted the bag over his shoulders as he silently stepped out of his room and made his way through the hall, eventually making his way to the living... room...

… crap, they already knew.

Sitting at the table where they'd always eaten, at the crack of 6:15 in the morning, were Ryuji, Makoto, and his mother, all almost immediately noticing his entrance despite his silence. And Izuku already knew, before any of them said a single word, that he was in for a bit of a talk.

"Izuku. Please, sit down," his mother asked him, and the green haired inheritor obeyed almost robotically to the request.

"... you and your friends. You're leaving, today, aren't you?"

"... yeah."

Inko sighed. "You were trying to make things easier by not telling us. I've never tried to pry into your personal life, but I'm not a fool. I know you meant well, but that is the worst way to leave.

"But... I'm not going to stop you."

Izuku's eyes widened in surprise. What? He expected his mom to be against this in every possible way; hell, he expected that if he told her the day they were supposed to leave she'd lock him in. And then, she continued. "I do want you to stay. I really do. You and your grandparents are all I have left, and I don't want to lose any of you. But I also know that you'd go even without my permission. So, I thought that it would be best to support you in any way I could.

"And... this is my way of doing that," Inko said as she reached for the box that had been sitting on the table since the conversation had started, and slid it over to her son. "I don't know when I'll see you again, but it's likely that we'll miss your birthday. I was going to save this for then, but I think now's as good a time as any."

Izuku looked at the box for a long moment, not sure if he was entirely ready for just what he thought was in there. But he opened it anyway, and was further surprised by what was inside.

It was his dad's hood. The same dark green fabric, what holes there had been there now sewn up and repaired, and the same symbol emblazoned onto the back in grey: a single, symmetrically designed leaf.

"Izuku." Ryuji began as his grandson slowly looked up at him. "I know you feel unworthy. I assure, you are more than worthy. Have been for years. I tried to help you realize. Was not very helpful at all. I am sorry for that. But I know my son. And he would be proud. Likely give this to you himself. So please..."

Izuku looked down at the hood once more. It was a big step for him. He'd be carrying his father's legacy. A father who he still didn't know much about. But...

 _This is better than not knowing at all._

He took the hood out of the box and looked at the leaf for a moment before he turned back to those present at the dinner table, saying as his eyes watered ever so slightly, "Thank you. Thank you so much."

"It's the least we could do for you," Makoto said. "Now, I do believe that you have somewhere to be."

Izuku nodded, and with his father's hood in hand, stood from the table and walked towards the door. Before leaving, however, he took one last look at the three who'd supported him through so much. And with the courage that they, and so many others, had given him, he promised them, "I'll come back. I promise I'll stay alive."

And they smiled through the tears as Izuku left the household, the silence permeating the room as the click of the door rang throughout. This was it. He was really doing this.

And so, he walked to his father's grave, to pay his respects. Now, there was no turning back.

 _(five minutes later)_

Izuku finished his respects to the grave of his father, the snow beginning to litter the cloak he wore ever so slightly. For the first time, he didn't cry. It was odd. The first time he really felt like he had to was the only time he couldn't.

He looked at Tempest, the weapon sitting comfortably in his hand, wondering about the words that rang through his mind night after night. The keyword is 'Shatter?' What did she mean? He thought it had something to do with Tempest, but every time he'd said the word with Tempest it didn't work. Maybe there was some sort of a prerequisite to saying it or something? It had been bothering Izuku for weeks on end, and now Toshinori was so busy with helping Goodwitch and the other teachers and hunters that he never got a chance to ask.

He hadn't seen Nana since that odd vision during his near-death experience with Adam. He knew she was an inheritor of One for All, but every time he tried to contact her he was met with the same submerged forest with a raging inferno in the center of it. Yet another thing he wanted to ask Toshinori about, but it never really came up. Too many questions, too many mysteries, and not a single proper answer.

"You ready?" Shoto asked from behind him, his hand on the hilts of his newly constructed weapons as he stood on freshly fallen snow in waiting. Izuku rose from his place on the ground, slinging Tempest onto his back and under his cloak as he turned to his partner with a small smile on his face and nodded.

The two then made their way to the Xiao Long household in silence, finding Jaune, Ren, and Nora waiting just outside the doorway, the leader looking rather stoic in contrast to how he was a few months ago, while the latter two simply waited with solemn lines on their lips. Nora, however, perked up as she saw the two walking up to them, greeting with, "Hey you two. Ready to head out?"

"Ready as I'll ever be," Izuku answered honestly.

"It would appear as though your wardrobe has changed somewhat," Ren stated as he gestured to the cloak now hanging from the green haired inheritor's shoulders. "It suits you well."

"O-oh. Thanks," Izuku said.

Jaune then looked up at his friend and smiled ever so slightly. It was a small moment, hardly something to notice, but it felt... comfortable.

Then the door opened with a slight creaking of the hinges, a slow wave of warm air emerging as Ruby and Yang did with Taiyang behind them, and the entire group suddenly felt and sinking sense of dread. The two had talked about how protective their father was of them, and they were suddenly worried that those stories weren't exaggerations.

"Hey guys! Ready to go?" Ruby said as she walked out of the house with her bag secure on her back and a hopeful smile on her face.

"Yes. Although I believe your father has something to discuss with you two," Ren said as he recovered.

"Well, I'll try to be quick about it," Tai said as his daughters turned around to face their father as the others looked away to give them some semblance of privacy, despite the fact that they could still hear everything.

"I won't pretend that I don't like what you're doing. It's irresponsible, and I don't want you two to get hurt. But... well, the world's getting harsher. More dangerous. And I know that you've both gone through so much in such a short time. I guess... I've realized that I can't protect you two forever. And that's alright. Because I know that you'll protect each other. I can't put into words just how proud I am of you two. Now go on out there and do some good."

There was silence from the three for the next few seconds, the only exception being the ruffling of clothes as they all hugged. And as they separated, Yang said, in a shaking voice, "W-we'll be fine, dad. I love you."

"I love you too, Little Dragon. Stay safe," Taiyang said as the door slowly closed behind them, the soft click making the small moment ever poignant.

"Mistral's a long way to go," Ren said as the group regathered to welcome their friends back into the fold.

"That's true, but it's really the only way to get there," Shoto said. "I was going to go there anyway, once the tournament was over. I suppose this is just taking the scenic route."

"Yeah. I hear it's really pretty up there. Especially in the spring," Yang said as her eyes drifted over to Izuku, their gazes meeting as they simply stared at each other for a few, short moments. No words were exchanged, no concerns voiced, just a silent point of understanding.

When they broke from this, Izuku turned to see Ruby approaching Jaune, neither speaking even though it seemed as though Ruby wanted to say something. Instead, she put her hand on Jaune's shoulder and simply gave him a firm nod. And Jaune nodded back. It wasn't much, but for some strange reason, Izuku had a feeling that the blonde knight would be okay. Eventually.

After a few minutes of walking, and some brief talking to break up the silence, they made their way to the docks, where they found Coco waiting with Cream & Sugar in one of her hands while the other was placed at her hip. Across her face, minorly hidden by her glasses, was a large scar that trailed down her face, much like the one on Izuku's. She and her team hadn't made it out unscathed, and the fact that they were still helping keep Vale under control was amazing in itself.

"Well, you all look nervous," Coco said with a sly smirk on her face, Izuku finding himself smiling back fondly. "Okay. I'll go over this again so there isn't any confusion. I can get you guys to Vale's border without any questions. But after that, you're gonna on your own. You sure you're up to it? We could use the help keeping Vale secure, and there isn't really a guarantee that you'll make it there in less than a month or two. Hell, the trek will probably be longer than that."

"We're sure," Ruby said, causing Yang, Izuku, and Ren to all nod with her.

"We wouldn't try if we weren't up to it. Besides, we're gonna take a detour to the south, and... visit Pyrrha's mom. Hopefully, once we're there we can take an airship to Mistral. Besides, I think she'll need this more than we will," Jaune said as he tugged at the straps on his backpack, Izuku then noticing that Jaune was also carrying a duffel bag in his left hand. Maybe that's what held his clothes?

The thought drifted harmlessly through his mind as they boarded Coco's ship, which was similar in design to the standard issue Bullhead, though the exterior was twice the size of the normal model and the interior was far more comfortable and far more advanced than that of a mere Class 1, like it had been designed with longer trips in mind. She had yet to repaint it at all, but she'd taken to naming it 'Cloud Jumper' for what was apparently an inside joke with Team CFVY. She'd even had the name painted across one of the doors in white.

"Hey, speedy," Coco said, gaining Izuku's attention as she continued to smile wryly. "Nice cloak. Suits you."

"Thanks," Izuku responded as Coco turned and jumped inside the ship, quickly making her way to the cockpit and preparing for takeoff.

Before he could follow the rest of them inside, however, he saw Toshinori making his way up the docks with his hands in his pockets and a smile on his face. Everyone looked to the man, wanting to say goodbye to him personally. But he raised a hand, stopping them from emerging any further, giving them a simple, silent smile, and raising a fist towards them. It was his own, odd way of saying goodbye.

And one by one, each of them reciprocated this action, raising their own fists towards him in the same gesture of farewell. And as quickly as they'd seen him come, Toshinori left, only letting his eyes linger on his apprentice for a while longer before he fully turned and walked back down the dock.

They all then quickly settled back into the ship, the green hired inheritor finally boarding. He then found a seat on the ship with Shoto finding a spot at his left while Yang was seated to his right. Ren and Nora were across from them, their leader sitting next to the two with his eyes closed, likely talking to Lancelot about something.

Izuku heard a sharp intake of breath. It wasn't very audible, in fact he could barely hear it, but it was there all the same. He turned to his right to see Yang gripping the left arm of her seat tightly, the sound of a tightening grip starting to echo from her palm. He couldn't see her eyes, but her teeth were grit together in a forming frown.

As quickly as he'd noticed, he placed his hand over her clenched fist, and her breathing began to even out ever so slowly. Her jaw unclenched and her hand relaxed from its death grip on the arm of the seat. She took a deep breath and exhaled, trying to calm herself as best she could with Izuku's help. It wasn't the first time that either he or Ruby had helped her get through her episodes, and it certainly wouldn't be the last. But he wanted to help her, however he could.

Yang's left hand then turned over and softly intertwined her fingers with his, squeezing his hand lightly as she fully calmed down. The two looked at each other again, neither smiling, neither speaking. Just another moment of understanding. The blonde brawler slowly put her head on Izuku's shoulder with her eyes closed, the hum of the ship's engines long since turned to white noise as they began to take off, and Izuku put her head on hers, anxiously awaiting the long journey ahead of them.

 _(meanwhile, White Fang Outpost, Adam's POV)_

This damn scar was so infuriating. He could hardly look himself in the mirror any longer without thinking back to that night. And that damned look in that human's eye... what had become of him? What was his name? Was he still alive?

Because if he was, he was going to find the green-haired bastard and kill him properly. No sudden revivals to interfere with the battle. They would fight, one on one. He would fight the human that had forced him to use Wilt's true power in years. He wasn't interested in what had become of the human after that. Whatever had possessed him before wouldn't happen again.

"Adam Taurus, I presume?"

A quick flash of Wilt and the clashing of metal against metal rang throughout the sparring room, and a man with white hair wearing a dark trench coat and covered with hands was suddenly in front of him, and blocking his own blade with a black scimitar. And he was human. What the hell was a human doing here?

"I'm not here to fight you. I'm only here to make a proposition," the white-haired man said as he slowly moved his blade away from the clash, sheathing it with a light click at his left hip. In tandem, Adam slowly lowered his own blade to his side, within striking distance. Just in case.

"How did you get in here, human?" he asked with an animalistic growl lining his tone.

"Oh, we have our ways. But that's not why I'm here. We want to make a deal with you."

"We? You're alone. And the last human who tried to make a deal with me-"

"Got what she wanted because she used cheat codes and took the easy way to level up instead of doing it herself. We know her well, and we also know that she didn't make it out of the Fall unscathed. Lost both her legs and an arm, if I'm not mistaken. And let's not forget, while she might've suffered the pain of her injuries, she hasn't suffered true pain. True sorrow. She hasn't had to live on the streets, fighting to survive every day of her life. She hasn't felt hunger gnaw at her every being, driving her mad in the dead of night. She hasn't simply sat by in the streets while people pass, begging for somebody to help.

"I know this because I have suffered it. Were it not for my master, I would've died on the streets cold and alone. And I know that countless faunus have suffered this treatment as well. I don't come to you as a human. I come to you as a fellow survivor. And I believe that our goals might benefit one another."

"... you have my attention."

And another soft click followed as Adam Taurus sheathed his blade.

 **A/N: And that's the end of Volume 3! Oh man, this took a while. Thank you all for staying with me all this time. I hope you enjoyed this chapter!**

 **Review Responses:**

 **Enku: A fan? I practically grew up on the series! (Harry Potter, not Slayers) And yeah, Izuku got pretty lucky during his fight with Adam, and that one slip up will come back to bit them in the ass. Might be a bit, though.**

 **Kaiser Dragon: I'll be sure to do just that!**

 **ZWarrior4life: In a way, it has, and they're all taking their own paths to dealing with it.**

 **Midgardsormr Jr: They are. Oh boy, they are.**

 **KongKing94: Yep, Toshinori's certainly got his hands full. Heck, he's one of the reasons that the city is still in relative order. And you might want to take the tiniest raincheck on that hookup request. We'll get there.**

 **Dreamweaver543: And that storm is known as the Anima Arc. *cracks neck* I'm gonna have some work to do.**

 **Uruk-Hai: You're welcome! And yes, yes it will. In due time.**

 **Thunder Dragon: They are, and I hope that I managed to demonstrate that in this chapter. And oh ho yes they f*cking are! And yeah, I don't think Izuku will want to do something like that again anytime soon.**

 **Odin's Eye: Thank you for the good news. And who knows, maybe she did.**

 **ReaderMan: … *sigh* I knew the moment I wrote the last chapter that someone would criticize what happened towards the end. I know that you guys didn't want to see Pyrrha die again. Heck, I was pretty on the fence about whether or not to let her die. But, no matter how long I tried to write and rewrite ideas, no matter how much I wanted her to finally get with Jaune, and no matter how much I really, really wanted to let her live, I just couldn't do something that felt satisfactory for her as a character. So, I settled for doing the best I could and let her go out with a bang, not a whimper.**

 **And letting her come back? No, that's out of the question. Dead people stay dead, and we're here to remember them as they were. And I know you're going to point this out, but no, Izuku didn't die in his fight with Adam, even though he came really damn close. I think I made that as crystal clear as I could. Also, their Auras broke when Cinder made that massive blast that knocked everyone down, which wasn't quite as explicit. That's on me.**

 **Now, on to some announcements.**

 **First, I want to get this out of the way. I won't be accepting requests from this chapter onwards. Not because I don't want to. It's more like I don't think I can handle keeping track of more requests than I already have on hand. There are just so many of them, and all of them are really freaking good! But, heck, I'm only one guy, and I might not even be able to get to some of them, and I've still got this story to do besides all that. But, I do believe that all the ideas and requests that I've seen thus far have been amazing, and I hope I can do them justice in the future** , **if I ever get to them.**

 **Also, I want to reiterate something I've mentioned in a previous chapter, though not as explicitly. I've got my own ideas piled up in my brain, and I want to be able to get to those in addition to the requests. Whether or not the story I do after this one finished up is a request fic or one of my own design is still up in the air. We'll see how things pan out. Also, _if_ the next fic I do is one of mine, then the one I do after will most likely be a request fic** , **and vice versa.**

 **And now, something that will likely annoy the hell out of a lot of you guys: I'm gonna be going on a bit of a hiatus for at least a month or two.**

 **.**

 **..**

 **...**

 ***covers ears***

 ***WAR AND CARNAGE ENSUE ONCE MORE***

 **I know, I know, there are some authors out there who go on a hiatus and never return to their stories, but I promise this isn't a perma-hiatus in disguise. Originally, I was just going to keep going with this story until it was done, but I'm starting to feel the burnout, and I need a bit of a break.**

 **The other reason I'm going on a hiatus is to do some editing on various chapters. I've had a few read-throughs of this story since about the halfway point of Volume 2, to make sure I kept in continuity, and... well, I have to admit, I probably could've done better with some of those chapters. A few of you have pointed out that my writing back at the start could be basic to the point of being cringy. And you're right. And I'm not even going to mention to mid-chapter A/Ns. I want to hit my past self over the head with a frying pan for even thinking about doing that. With the exception of song choices, all of those are going to the deepest pits of hell where they belong.**

 **Otherwise, shorter chapters will get extended to make more sense, I'll add a few more character interactions, and do whatever else I have to and overall make this story better.**

 **Other than that, thank you all for reading, and I hope to see you all in the next one! I'm hoping to get the editing done and have another chapter out by about mid to late December, but what with college and everything else that's been happening lately we'll just have to wait and see.**

 **Either way, thank you all for reading, and I hope to see you in the next one. I'll be back!**


	43. Move Onward, Not There Yet

**A/N: Hey guys! Long time no chapter. Well, it took a while, but I think I've improved the earlier chapters as much as I can in terms of quality. That and getting rid of all the mid-chapter A/Ns I could. I'm not quite done with it yet, so there'll still be some updates for edits until I get to around the late 20s in terms of Chapter count. But, before we move on:**

 **HOLY SHIT, WE HAVE REACHED OVER 150,000 VIEWS TOTAL! I HAVE BEEN BLESS-ED! BLESS-ED I SAY!**

 **But seriously, I know I've been saying it over and over again in increasingly silly and over the top ways, but a special thanks to each and every one of who's taken an interest in this story. I honestly wouldn't be here without it. Segway to:**

 **By all that is right in the universe, Volume 6 has been awesome so far! And did you see episode 3? All hail episode 3! Here's to many more amazing episodes! I'm definitely going to give a Volume review once the season wraps up!**

 **This chapter is going to be a bit of an interlude for various characters and showing what's been happening with everybody in between Volumes 3 and 4. I don't think I'll be able to give everyone an equal amount of attention, but I hope that what's here can satisfy you in the meantime. Either way, I'm back, and I hope you all enjoy the chapter!**

 **Disclaimer: I do not own RWBY or My Hero Academia. They belong to Monty Oum, Kohei Horikoshi, and their respective publishing companies. Please support the official releases.**

 **I do not own the cover image**

Chapter 43: Move Onward, Not There Yet

Izuku slowly woke to the sound of waves crashing against the shoreline and reseeding back into the deep blue expanse from whence they emerged. It might've been a rather beautiful sight were he not currently in a room that was without windows and felt a bit too stuffy for his liking. Then again, it was better than being back on that deathtrap of a ship, so he'd take what he could get.

The green haired inheritor stretched his tired arms for a good five seconds before he let them fall limp to his sides once more, blood pleasingly returning to its normal flow as he shook himself further awake. He still couldn't believe it had actually been two months since they'd all left Vale. Granted, he'd been seasick for the two weeks it had taken them to get from eastern Vale to western Anima, but time had still passed surprisingly fast for them.

Before they'd actually gotten to the eastern coast, their time in crossing Vale's terrain was a blur of many cold and sleepless nights, fighting off sickness and Grimm alike before they reached the next town to get some form of rest and keep marching on. They weren't pleasant by any means, and they probably made up some of the worst days of their lives. But now, it was something they could all look back and laugh at. One day.

It proved rather odd and a bit sad that the only ones out of their entire group who'd laughed in a really long time had been Ruby and Nora, as well as the occasional chuckle from him and Jaune. The most things like that had gotten out of the rest of them were the slightest of sly smirks and small but warm smiles. But that was on the better days. However, slowly but surely, as they got ever closer to their destination, the gap between those better days seemed to be getting shorter. But back to the topic at hand.

The previous evening, the one that had finally delivered them to Anima's western shores, was the first that many of them had gotten a full night's sleep in a _long_ time. But, as Izuku scanned the room, finding the beds of both Jaune and Shoto empty, the green haired inheritor sighed as he realized that the rest wasn't welcomed by everyone. Honestly, he couldn't really blame them for staying awake or getting up early to train, to find something to do to keep themselves occupied. He'd been doing it for a while now, to get his thoughts away from-

Izuku quickly snapped himself out of that train of thought, knowing what would happen if he were to go down it again. He had to stay focused. They needed to get to Mistral in one piece. He could deal with his problems later.

Finding himself itching for something to do to distract himself, he put on some basic clothes: a simple, dark, long-sleeved shirt and a pair of grey sweatpants with the additions of Cyrus, Stratus, and Tempest, just in case any Grim happened to be around while he was out. You could never be too careful, especially these days, what with the Grimm becoming even more prevalent than they'd been before. Hunters weren't as scarce as they could've been, but they were spread very, very thin, certainly not nearly large enough in numbers to cover the entirety of Anima.

A lot could change in two months. A lot _had_ changed, even within their little group. Some things were still doing just that: changing. The only thing that was anywhere close to normal anymore had become the not so simple fact that they were a bunch of broken people who were forging on anyway, in spite of the damage they'd sustained and the people they'd lost.

Izuku made as little noise as possible as he made his way outside, telling the innkeeper that he was going out for a walk before exiting the establishment and jogging towards the coastline, with a torrent of thoughts getting jumbled, unjumbled, and sorted into his attention so that they could make sense in some capacity.

Ruby didn't often show it, but he knew that she hadn't been unscathed by what she'd seen at Beacon. There were a few times he could remember her having nightmares; nightmares that he and Jaune had to deal with whenever they got to be too much for her. She'd asked them not to tell any of the others, not even Yang, saying that she didn't want her sister to have to worry about her more than she already did. And they had obliged this request, kept quiet and helped her when she needed comfort, reassurance.

But Ruby wasn't the only one who had nightmares. Yang had them too. A lot more frequently than her sister did, and far more noticeable. At first, everyone had tried to pitch in, to help out and keep everything safe and calm for her. But at one point, just a few weeks ago, in fact, it had gotten so bad that she wouldn't let anyone get close to her for fear of her own life, seeing a flash of Adam that had seemed far too real for her mental state to handle and scaring her half to death. That was just how much of an effect these dreams were having on her. It had taken both him and Ruby together to calm her down, but even after it was all over all she could do was cry herself back to sleep. That was definitely one of their lowest points, and if Izuku never had to think about it again it would still be too soon.

But she _was_ getting better. The nightmares were less frequent than they had ever been, and she seemed to be happier than when they had first begun their journey to Mistral. She'd even smile every once in a while.

What they were all going through wasn't something that could simply be 'fixed.' It was a hard lesson, but it was one that Izuku knew he needed to accept. These scars, both metaphorical and literal, would haunt them all for the rest of their lives. They had to learn to live with them.

And bit by bit, day by day, inch by inch, somehow, at the speed of molasses, it was getting easier. It would be a long time before things were anywhere close to normal again. But they would get there. One day. They just had to keep moving forward.

Izuku's run came to a gradual halt as he looked out at the sunrise that bathed the coast and the ocean alike in a coat of golden light. It was beautiful enough that he just stopped, stared, and smiled for a quick minute. It was a reminder of better times. Of happier times.

And for some reason, the golden sheen from the sun made him think back to Yang once more, this time in a different sense. A more intimate one. Things between the two had been... well, to say it simply: put on hold. There were more important things to worry about than the state of their relationship. He knew it, she knew it, and they'd both opted to avoid the topic of their feelings for each other whenever their conversations drew anywhere close to the topic. They were closer than they had been before, that much was obvious, but they'd never gotten any closer than 'really good, oddly comfortable friends.'

They would have to talk about it eventually, like Yang had said all those months back, when things were simple and easy. When the only things that held their immediate concern were tournaments and schoolwork. He had more to worry about than the others did, sure, but they were simpler times nonetheless. Maybe they'd talk when they got to Mistral? After they figured out what to do after they got there? He wasn't sure. But they would have to. Even if there were more important things to worry about, they couldn't avoid it forever.

And so, with his head clear, his thoughts sorted, and determination filling his chest, he turned his back on the golden sunrise and made his way back to the inn, with the rest of their journey stretched out ahead of them.

 _(meanwhile, the inn, Ren's POV)_

Ren was rather proud of the breakfast he'd managed to pull together that morning. After a few minutes of bartering with the keeper over the use of the kitchen, he'd managed to find everything he needed to make something that everyone would surely enjoy. Nora most of all. He'd made a separate plate just for her, after all.

Pancakes. A literal mountain of pancakes. Oh, they were going to love this. It had been a while since they'd had any food other than rations and animals that they'd been forced to hunt out of circumstance. He hadn't even been sure if some of them were safe to eat. Of course, none of them fell deathly ill, evidenced by the fact that they were all still alive, but one could never be too careful. Well, he knew a few people who would disagree with that stance, but such was life.

He then heard the telltale sound of Nora bounding down the stairs and silently prepared for what normally ensued when he cooked pancakes. As per normal, she zipped through the main room of the inn, paying the fact that she was still in her night clothes no heed, and put as many pancakes onto her plate as she reasonably could, in addition to the ones already stacked on there, and started to eat them as though they might have been made of ambrosia. Which she constantly claimed they tasted like.

Ren wasn't one to brag about these kinds of things, but he did take pride in the fact that she compared his cooking to something as renowned as the food of the gods themselves.

The door to the inn then opened with an almost inaudible creak and quickly closed soon after, leaving Izuku standing in the doorway with Cyrus and Stratus strapped to his feet with Tempest slung over his back, as per usual. Though he would've expected that he'd at least leave Tempest behind. He wasn't even in his proper hunter's outfit.

Well, neither were he and Nora, so he didn't really have a lot of room to talk.

"Morning," he said as he eased Tempest off of his back and rested it next to him at the table, a small smile crossing his face as he looked towards the hill of pancakes the bubbly redhead was eating through and knowingly asked, "I'm guessing that's Nora under there?"

"The one and only," Ren replied with a small smile of his own. "Ruby and Yang are still sleeping, and it seems Nora was polite enough to leave them alone. I assume that Jaune and Shoto are likely out training?"

"Probably. They'll be back within the next half hour or so. They wouldn't want to miss the chance to eat your pancakes before Nora inhales them all."

Ren actually chuckled at that remark. "Then you haven't seen how fast Nora can eat. I recommend you get some pancakes while you can. She'll be wanting seconds pretty soon."

 _(meanwhile, a nearby clearing, Shoto's POV)_

Shoto lightly stepped out of the way of a hit made by Lancelot's left fist, then narrowly sidestepping a lunge made by Jaune as Corcea Mors crackled with the hum of fire Dust. When that lunge missed, he made to strike Shoto with his shield, an attack that he had no choice but to block with crossed blades, sending him skidding away at least ten feet.

He silently smirked to himself as he noted that Jaune was being far less hesitant about his attacks. That was good. They both needed the practice, for him to get used to wielding two blades in tandem and for the blonde knight in front of him to fully realize his potential as a tank. Shoto then shot across the distance Jaune had created, slamming Veofolnir into the shield and using the rebound force to get in a quick jab to the blonde knight's chest plate with Niohoggr, who skid back only slightly before giving a counter attack of his own, spinning with the force of the blow and almost catching Shoto across the face, the half and half boy only barely able to dodge what had been sent his way before backpedaling further when he had to dodge yet another blow from Lancelot, this time with his blade. Damn. Jaune could certainly take a hit like the best of them.

But, of course, that was where their practice spar ended. Shoto quickly sheathed his blades, breathing a relieved sigh before he said, "C'mon. We're probably missing breakfast by now."

Jaune looked as though he wanted to argue the point, but he quickly conceded when he saw how high the sun was. Ren promised to cook pancakes today, pancakes that he'd nary had a taste of in a long time. And if Nora was awake by now... well, her appetite knew no current boundaries.

Lancelot's torso was quickly replaced by his floating helmet, bobbing up and down and about as he said, _**"Excellent work, Master Jaune. And you as well, Shoto. I can see that you're both improving rather rapidly. Remember that-"**_

"Practice makes perfect, and further study shall be made permanent," Shoto and Jaune synched, having heard Lancelot's mantra more than enough times to recite it from heart. It was a good piece of advice, he wouldn't deny that, but the ghostly knight repeated it so often that it was starting to get a bit old.

 _ **"Well, it's nice to see that you've taken my advice to heart. Now, off with you. You two will need breakfast just as much as Nora does, no?"**_ The helmet of the ghostly knight then disappeared from the air and into Jaune's subconscious once again.

"Well, you heard him. Let's get going," Shoto said as he began his walk back to the inn, hopeful that breakfast still awaited them. Jaune hesitated for only a few seconds before quickly trotting up to the half and half boy with a forced smile on his lips. Shoto knew that he was saving face so that the others didn't worry about him. He hadn't brought it up, but he kept an eye on him nonetheless.

He wasn't much suited to emotional talks, or even cheering people up, but he'd be there if Jaune or any of the others needed him to be. It was all he could do at the moment. He hoped it would be enough.

 _(ten minutes later, the inn, Yang's POV)_

When Yang woke up in the room that she'd shared with her sister and Nora the previous night, she could tell almost instantly that she was alone. That was fine, though. It didn't bother her nearly as much as it used to, almost hyperventilating more than once because she was simply that scared of being alone. Now? It was only a minor discomfort at the worst of times. One that, while she would much rather be without, was something she could handle much better than being scared of isolation.

Granted, she didn't exactly blame Ruby or Nora for wanting to get some food; her sister had insisted she wasn't hungry for most of the late boat ride to Anima because of their shorter supplies and Ren had promised to make pancakes that day; but she wanted to get up with them in order to get some breakfast for herself, before Nora ate a majority of the pancakes.

The extra sleep was nice though, especially since she didn't have to worry about dreams as often as she once did.

The door creaked only the slightest bit as she made her way downstairs to the ground level, where her friends were likely discussing travel plans over breakfast, the mid-sized yet still humble inn brightly lit as she found something that she'd certainly expected in a not so expected manner.

Everyone else, with the exceptions of Jaune and Shoto, had forgone the donning of regular clothes, staying in their pajamas as a map was spread out onto the table in front of them: a map of Mistral, judging from the shape of the land mass on said map, with various red and black lines all across it, places circled and crossed all across the face of it.

When she'd entered the space, a few heads turned to greet her. Two of them were who she'd expected it to be: Ruby and Izuku, both of whom looked happy to see that she was up and about, and the other being Nora, who reached to the far side of the table to grab what looked to be-

"For me, Nora? You shouldn't have," Yang said with a slight smile, though the joy she tried to put behind the words wasn't as boisterous as it used to be. She'd recently been trying to get back into joking around with everyone, telling a couple random jokes here and there, even getting a laugh out of her sister and Nora back when they were on the ship. And she could've sworn that even Shoto had snorted at the last one that she'd made, which gave her all the more reason to try and do it more. It was just part of the way she coped, she supposed.

But Nora simply shook her head and put the plate in front of an empty seat, saying with a slight smile, "Well, I figured you'd be hungry after yesterday and everything. It's the least I could do."

Nora Valkyrie, one woman badass and consumer of almost all things sweet, had saved her a plate of her most favored of favorite foods. Nora was often very gluttonous when it came to these things, so the fact that she cared enough to save her some was more than enough for Yang to say, "Thanks for that. I know you usually hoard your pancakes, but this means a lot coming from you."

"Less talking, more eating. Before I change my mind," Nora jokingly threatened as her slight smile suddenly turned into a wide grin, giving Yang her fork before the blonde brawler sat down and listened to the others plan out their route as she ate and piped in every once in a while with either a tip or a clarifying question.

It took a few minutes for her to finish her portion of breakfast, but by the time she had they'd managed to work out a few routes just in case things didn't go quite according to plan. Two to be specific. They were going to go further south for the first portion of the journey, in order to get to southern Anima and get Pyrrha's belongings to her mother.

The second portion was where things got complicated. There was a chance that the city they were heading to had working airships, and that those could take them the rest of the way to Mistral. But there was a problem with that plan. The airships there could still be under use for urgent hunter business only, or there could simply be no airships in the area. In either case, they'd have to make the rest of the way on foot.

The real problem was which route to take. Their first option was the Frost Mountains, which, as the name suggested, were notoriously cold even during some of the warmest times of the year. But despite that, the Grimm seemed to avoid this mountain like a plague, and if they prepared properly, they could be at Mistral within a week and a half.

And there came the second problem with choosing this path. It would be faster, no doubt, but it would be _crazy_ expensive to prepare for. And they couldn't exactly stockpile Lien on the road. Every spare Lien they'd made so far was going into what they needed: camping supplies, food for the road, inn expenses, ammunition, stuff for weapon and armor maintenance, etc. If they could get enough Lien to prepare, however, there was no question that they'd at least consider taking the mountains.

But there was an alternative. They could simply take an obscure but still well-trodden path through what most people called the 'Yuri Trail.' They didn't know why it was called that, but the mention of it was enough to have Ren's eyes widen in recognition, at least for a moment. It'd take them through a few abandoned towns, but they'd probably be in Mistral in about two and a half to three weeks, depending on the conditions of the trails they trekked.

While most of the group was more than okay with hightailing it through the Yuri Trail, there was also the matter of time. The Yuri Trial was safer, yes, and as hunters, even hunters in training, they wouldn't really have to factor the Grimm into their plans unless they came across one that was particularly strong. But the Yuri Trail was longer. A week and a half was a short time on the road, but in a city? It was more than enough time for a thousand different thing to go wrong, even though the hunter count hadn't been reduced to nearly as low as it could've been. Then there came the conundrum.

Could they afford to keep themselves away from Mistral for a week and a half longer? Maybe. There wasn't really a right answer here. It was unlikely, but there was _a_ chance that something could go wrong while they were still on the road.

Eventually, they realized that debating that particular point wasn't really going to get them anywhere at the moment, so everyone agreed that they would deal with that problem when it arose again, even though the majority were in favor of the Yuri Trail. So, they started packing up their maps and making their way upstairs to change into their proper travel attire. Yang lifted her now dirtied plate to give it back to the chef in the back of the inn-

A sudden spasm through her right arm caused her fingers to slip and drop the plate, shattering into shards as a flash of red swam into her vision in the pattern of Adam's Grimm mask. For just a moment, it was all she could see.

It was enough to send her tumbling to the floor, her lilac eyes wide with fear as her chest rose and fell in synch with her heavy breathing. What little strength she had in her legs was used to pull them closer to her chest, a small comfort against what was terrifying her, but a comfort nonetheless. He breath stayed the same, quickened pace as she heard the others crowd around her, making room for both Izuku and Ruby to ensure that she was okay. Slowly, with all the speed of melting ice, she uncurled from her ball, her hands grasping at both her sister and her best friend as she tried to stop the tears from falling. She couldn't afford to be weak right now. _They_ couldn't afford to be weak right now.

And still, someone held her close, held her tight. Someone told her, "Shhhhhh. It's alright, Yang. I'm here. We're all right here. You're gonna be okay."

It was Izuku who said that as he held her, her face buried into his shoulder once more as she let out silent tears for but a few moments before she got her bearings. Adam's face still haunted her, even after all these months without a word of either the Fang or her old partner. It wasn't so simple as putting herself back together and getting on with her life. She knew it wasn't, and it never would be that simple, as much as that might've made things easier.

But hearing someone say those words to her, that she would be okay... it gave her hope. So, she dried her eyes and pulled away from Izuku's rather comfortable shoulder to look him in the eye and, with the warmest smile she could give him at that moment, said, "Yeah. Thank you."

And so, their journey to Mistral began once more.

 _(meanwhile, advanced Atlas hospital, Tenya's POV)_

Tenya's breath came shakily but steadily as he reached further onwards, gripping the rail as his legs burnt with effort beneath him, still not used to their newfound cybernetic nerves and enhancements. But he'd been expecting something this. He wasn't just going to be able to fully walk again overnight, much as it pained him to admit it. He was going to have to work for this. He was going to have to _earn_ his legs back.

The spectacled boy suddenly felt one of his knees jerk forwards with a sudden reaction of the new nerves, almost sending him careening to the floor before his own legs, with the assistance from his therapist, caught him.

"You alright?" the therapist asked, used to seeing Tenya's nerves acting up. In the month and a half, they'd been going through exercises that would ensure his legs were healed up properly. Sometimes Tenya would need a break, catch his breath before they resumed the exercise. Other times, however...

"I can keep going." And he meant it. Though it was said through grit teeth and strained muscles, he knew that he was nowhere near done. Keep going. Keep getting better. Be stronger than you were before. Be worthy of standing alongside your friends once again. These thoughts, in combination with his own determination and stubbornness, kept him going.

 _(meanwhile, a port in Vale, Bakugo's POV)_

The explosive blonde direwolf faunus shifted about uncomfortably in the hoodie he was wearing over his ears and the top half of his clothes. It'd been a while since his mom had taught him the basics of being a Berserker, including the mood swings, which he'd been experiencing in bits and pieces throughout his teenage years and now had even more reason to hate.

After going through the motions of teaching him a few more advanced fighting techniques, and more than a few failed attempts at meditation, his mom had essentially tried her hardest to not lose her patience with him and failed more than once. It was then that she decided that maybe a Red Berserker teaching another Red Berserker wasn't the best plan, seeing as their temperaments and attitudes were so similar that they argued and butted heads with each other constantly. It was fine when they were back home and it was simply how they bantered; rampant and playful insults yelled to each other in jest even though they really cared about each other. But it wasn't even close to ideal for a student/teacher relationship. Even back when she'd taught him the basics of hand to hand, it was a constant struggle just to stay on the same wavelength and not try to strangle each other.

And this was why she was sending him to Menagerie, in order to find someone she used to train with in Vale's old forests under her old master. Somebody she constantly referred to as 'Pull Punch,' an old nickname that she constantly snickered to herself about. Apparently, he used to hate the idea of violence so much that he only learned how to use his Berserker side so that it wouldn't take him over. If his mother back then was anything like she was now, she probably teased him about it more than once.

Anyway, though they weren't of the same color of Berserker that he and his mother were, this Pull Puch person sounded as though they were considerably more patient than his mother was, and a better teacher, if her old stories were to be believed. So, putting two and two together, she figured that getting him to Menagerie as fast as possible to meet him and start learning would be the best option.

This was why he was currently getting onto a boat with other faunus and trying to ignore all the chatter flying about the place. He just wanted to get to his room and start on those meditation exercises that his mom had given to him. It wasn't like he was really the meditative type, but it was something to do to stave off the endless boredom that was sure to come on a voyage this long.

Despite the other people on the ship, his boots made a distinct enough click against the floorboards that he could hear his footsteps over the other passengers as he made his way across the deck and to one of the hold entrances. For just a brief moment, his senses flared up, finding an old scent of frosted sugar and mixed flavors.

 _… Minty? Is she here?_

For a few moments, Bakugo looked about the deck to potentially spot his friend from back in Vale, only for that same scent to fade as quickly as it had appeared. Was he just imagining it? Was he homesick? Or maybe... maybe he just missed one of the only real friends he'd ever-

 _Damnit, I can't be getting soft now. Just... fucking hell, I need to clear my head._

And, as Bakugo stomped his way down to his cabin, slamming the door behind him as he found an empty space on the floor to sit cross-legged as his eyes quickly fluttered closed, that was exactly what he did. Little did he know that this would make up most of the time on the boat. Clearing his head, and thinking of nothing.

Nothing but his failure to protect his partner, always finding him when he least expected it.

 _(meanwhile, back in Vale, Toshinori's POV)_

The once smiling giant, now turned a gaunt, boney, and frail man, rubbed his face with the ball of his palm as he leaned back in his chair, finally done organizing the potential new safe zone and coordinating the Grimm Hunt that would secure it. Glynda, Aizawa, and Ned had been true assets in these trying times, in addition to all the assistance already provided by the jovial duo of Oobleck and Port. If it hadn't been for them, he didn't think even half of what they'd done over the last few months would've even been possible. And with the addition of Peach to heal most of their wounds, they'd probably have Vale back in their hands within the next few months.

While they and some of the older students had remained behind to secure what they could of Vale, most of the students had, understandably, gone to their respective homes in order to be with their families; in addition to the civilians that had been evacuated for the first few weeks following the Fall of Beacon; and get them away from the hordes of Grimm that now prowled the continent. A side effect of the Ichor Dragon that was currently frozen stone solid atop Beacon Tower, which had now become a literal beacon of negativity, and by extension, Grimm.

School wouldn't be in session this year, not until they could reclaim Beacon itself. As far as they could reasonably tell, there had been a few sightings of figures going in and out of the school, but they definitely hadn't found the relic yet. A good thing too. Out of all the relics, the Crown of Choice was probably one of, if not _the_ , most powerful of the four; partial only to the Blade of Destruction, if it was wielded by the right person.

The door to his makeshift office opened with a loud groan as the figure of Ned Stark walked into the office with Ice on his back and his hooded cloak matted down from all the rain outside. "It's gone well. All the stragglers have been dealt with, and we've only had a couple injuries overall. No losses on our side of the equation."

Toshinori sighed in relief at that. "Good. Team CFVY's still out for supplies?"

"They called in two minutes ago to report in their haul. We've got enough food, water, and spare clothes to last us for the next few months. They should be back within the hour," Ned said with a smile crossing his normally stoic face. Despite them still being in rather desperate straits, these past two weeks in particular had shown good progress for a recovering City of Vale. Hopefully, they'd have it all back within the next three months or so before setting their sights on reclaiming the Academy itself.

But that wasn't quite on the horizon yet. There was also one matter with which he knew Aizawa could be critical. Hell, the person who'd managed to get their message through to him had been a council member requesting the disheveled man specifically. The problem was that this matter was all the way over in Mistral. The other side of the world. Where he wouldn't be able to contact him for months on end.

Still, the messenger had been very clear when he said that, despite there being a lot of hunters still in Anima, they were spread very, _very _ thin, and problem after problem was popping up in Mistral. Maybe... argh! What to do, what to do...

"Thinking about the request?" the Stark asked, likely reading the conflict painted onto Toshinori's sunken face.

"... tell me something. Would you send someone to stop a potential threat from ever happening, or keep them where you know they can do some good?"

Ned sighed before he answered. "There are too many variables to give that question a simple answer, Toshinori. But, if you really want my opinion for this specific situation, tell Aizawa about it and let him decide what to do from there. That'd probably be best for both parties."

"... that sounds like a plan. Thanks for the advice, Ned. Honestly, I don't know where we'd be without you and Glynda around to keep things in line."

"Save that talk for when we get Beacon back. There'll be plenty of time to give thanks later. And don't try to downplay how much of a part you've had in keeping what we still have of the city stable. You're a lot more helpful than you give yourself credit for," Ned reassured the once Symbol of Hope as he exited the office to fetch Aizawa.

Now alone, Toshinori silently rubbed the injury that he'd been given all those years ago by the same man who'd destroyed a good portion of Vale, who now sat in a faraway Atlas facility, where, if any gods were out there and believed in actual justice, he would remain until the end of his days. Even now, all these months after the Battle of Beacon, and all the years after he'd been effectively crippled, his chest still felt oddly sore. A permanent reminder of what he'd failed to do all those years ago.

But there was hope for the future. Izuku still had room to grow into the Symbol of Hope that he both wanted and needed to be. He just hoped that he'd be able to do it in time.

For now, however... there was work to be done.

 _(meanwhile, somewhere in Anima, Adam's POV)_

The bull faunus rubbed his temples in frustration as his friend still laid bedridden from his fight above the clouds with only what he could briefly describe as 'a Red one' before passing out from exhaustion via the toll of the multiple surgeries in addition to his still healing wounds. He hated having to wait for answers, but what he hated even less was having them kept from him.

Sienna was not happy in the slightest with him going along with this plan to decimate Beacon, to send a message that the Fang and the faunus could no longer be ignored. Hell, she actually clocked him in the face when he first saw her again. Not enough to knock him out, but inflicting enough pain to send the message. Said message being: 'I'm angry _and_ disappointed.'

It likely would've been a lot worse than that if she hadn't had the time to cool off. She'd decided that a punishment was needed to suit his actions, seeing as she knew that he'd gotten so used to being injured that it was little more than a tap on the shoulder most of the time. She demoted him three full ranks and only given charge of a small squad. He assumed that the only reason she didn't cut him loose altogether was the fact that he was popular with the more hotheaded and brash members of the Fang, who would've retaliated against her if there was even a hint of something like that being planned. There had been more and more of them lately as well...

Of course, these wounds she'd written off as little more than love taps for him, and the instance in which he'd received them, had been on his mind since the first time he'd woken up. That human, the one with the green hair and eyes... Izuku Midoriya, if he remembered the profiles correctly. He hadn't bothered to watch the tournament, but he now knew most of what this boy was capable of. But he steered away from that particular trail of thought before he began obsessing over it again. He could get his vengeance on the boy later.

Shortly before he'd been officially been demoted, Sienna being too busy with the fallout of their attack to do it on the spot, he'd been approached by that... odd human. He seemed a bit insane, but there was a certain simplicity that he found appealing in his speech. He liked games and other childish distractions, though he definitely knew where to draw the line between work time and personal time, even if that line seemed to be rather heavily skewed. He was apparently a survivor of poverty at a young age, something that he'd unfortunately had to deal with more than once before he'd joined the Fang.

In short: this Tomura Shigaraki, odd though he was, was a kind of kindred spirit to Adam. He hated admitting that, as he despised most, if not all, of humanity, but he honestly couldn't help it. Saw would probably kill him if he ever found out about the deal he made with the man and the person he was lending his services to at the moment. Rightfully so, as what humans had done to him... well, there was a reason that they'd left him in that prison until recently. If All Might himself was what it took to take the man down, there was no way they'd realistically be able to keep some kind of leash on his brutality.

But now the green haired boy was popping back into his mind again, only for him to quickly shove it back down, deeper this time, so that he hopefully wouldn't have to worry about it until later that night. Damn. It was actually getting hard to focus now.

But Adam elected to then pull the green haired boy into the forefront of his mind once more as he put on his new mask and made his way towards their practice ring. He needed to relieve some stress. And the boy made a very encouraging target when he wasn't haunting his nightmares.

 _(meanwhile, undisclosed location in Atlas, Kimblee's POV)_

It had only been a few weeks since this other prisoner had been brought in here, and Kimblee already liked him to no end. He could certainly respect the one that'd been brought in about a week before the festival actually started; hell he'd heard whispers of his exploits, but he'd never gotten the chance to actually talk to him as the man had been gagged when he was brought in, and the only conversation he'd ever had with the infamous 'Stain' didn't exactly go well for either of them.

But this other one? Even bound and nearly powerless, he had a certain... _presence._ One that simply screamed ideals and the strength to back them up. This man, this 'All for One,' was someone worth following, someone who he could work with. Judging from his previous display at Beacon, he might even have need of his particular set of skills. Oh, what he would give to make another symphony of such magnitude...

 **" Kimblee,"** the man suddenly addressed him. **" You seem like a decent enough fellow. I know full well that what you did back then was of your own volition, but I don't believe that you were entirely unassisted. Was I correct in assuming that?"**

The black-haired man chuckled at that. "You're not wrong. I did have some help. But what help I had has already been used up. I wouldn't count on it in a pinch."

This was a straight up lie, and Kimblee knew it. His 'help' was right here, just above his larynx, ready to be spat out and used at any time. If only his hands could actually touch. Getting out of here would be a cinch. Of course, that would only be if he was actually that impatient in the first place, which he was not. At least, not most of the time. He had his moments of weakness, but otherwise he was unnaturally patient. Something he took only the slightest hint of pride in.

Of course, judging by the man's seemingly involuntary laugh, he likely knew that what he'd just said was total bullshit as well. Kimblee smirked at the notion. Where had this guy been all his life?

 **" Just as well. We'll likely be here for a while."**

No specification. But Kimblee learned to read between the lines. They'd probably be out within the next year or so, if the man meant what he said. And he did seem to mean what he'd said to him, and about his apprentice as well.

Oh, how he couldn't wait for that day.

 **A/N: And that's a wrap for Chapter 43! Woo! It's good to be back!**

 **Like I said up at the top, I haven't quite finished editing the chapters as I promised. I'll probably have more time to do that now that finals have fully wrapped up and I'm on winter break, but in addition to the fact that I'm back to writing this again and the fact that my particular winter holiday is fast approaching, it might take a bit longer than I'd originally anticipated. Anyway, I hope you enjoyed the new chapter! Be sure to review if you have any questions or criticisms! Every bit helps!**

 **Next Chapter: Jan 11th**

 **Seeya in the next one!**


	44. The Next Step

**A/N: And here we are again with yet another chapter for Team STIK! Hope you guys enjoy what's been going on so far! Anyway, now that I'm officially back in business, I'm probably gonna keep going until this thing is finished because it's hella fun to write and this actually gives my life some form of structure, surprisingly.**

 **It should also be noted that I will be making some canon changes to both Volumes 4 and 5, as, while I think they were both pretty good Volumes and not quite as awful as some people make them out to be (although there were a lot of good points for Volume 5 being kinda... well, bad, especially when compared to the others), they both could've been much better than what they were. Especially Volume 5, much to my dismay. I'll try not to change anything super major, ie: the fact that Oscar's a farm kid or the main motivations for characters, etc. Though I'll definitely change context of certain things that were kinda dumb in order for it to make more sense. Warning you now so that you're not entirely blindsided later.**

 **Also, OVER 500 FOLLOWERS AND 500 FAVORITES! YES! THANK YOU ALL SO MUCH! LET'S KEEP GOING! AIM FOR THAT 1,000 MARK, LET'S GO!**

 **Welp, enough about me blabbing about random stuff. Enjoy the chapter!**

 **Disclaimer: I do not own RWBY or My Hero Academia. They belong to Monty Oum, Kohei Horikoshi, and their respective publishing companies. Please support the official releases.**

 **I do not own the cover image**

Chapter 44: The Next Step

Tomura resisted the urge to scratch his neck in mild frustration as he and a few of his group casually walked out of the Mistralian airship they'd managed to repair and claim for their own, with Compress at his right side, one of his more tactful partners and definitely the most trusted after Torchwick. He would've brought more along, maybe even have Kurogiri on standby in case things went south, but this boss of Cinder's was very particular about the fact that he brought no more than two of his group into the castle with him. That and Kurogiri was currently keeping everyone else from going at each other's throats.

Honestly, he probably would've made Dabi and Himiko stay on the ship even without the warning, as the former still had quite a bit of contempt for Cinder that he didn't think should be unleashed just yet. Best to save that for when there was an ample opportunity to enact it and less of a chance that they'd all be eviscerated for it on the spot.

The third member of his group followed closely behind them after parking the ship and securing the controls. Still dressed in his iconic white jacket with his bright orange hair, classy as hell bowler hat, and cocky smirk, was Roman Torchwick, alive, well, and supremely talkative on the way here. However, Tomura could tell that his smirk was fairly forced by this point; something that he could fall back on so that he wouldn't show weakness. If this person was both terrifying and powerful enough to bring someone as self-centered and power hungry as _Cinder_ to her side, he'd do well to keep it on.

The castle that she lived in looked to be carved out of a gigantic, dark violet crystal, with a runway for visiting airships to dock and a rather intimidating front door that was at least a story high on its own. If Tomura was guessing right, and judging by the fact that there wasn't anyone outside to greet them, the meeting had likely started already. Either that or someone was being sour about being saved. Honestly, either one would make sense at that point.

"Well, this place certainly gives quite the first impression. I like it. Both intimidating _and_ practical," Compress said as he aimlessly twirled his cane while they made their way to the aforementioned door.

"Of course _you'd_ like it. You're all about fusing flash and use. Seriously though, don't try to combine a flashbang with a compressed net again until you can find out how _not_ to set the net on fire," Torchwick said as he casually opened the door with a tap of his foot, proving the entryway to be surprisingly light for something so seemingly massive. Huh. Weird.

The rather eerie groan that it let out as it slid open and the dull impact it had with the wall behind it was rather intimidating. Hopefully, the people they were going to meet had heard it. Never hurt to make a powerful first impression. Especially on people you were going to be working with. Heck, that was half the reason Tomura had introduced himself to Torchwick the way that he did.

Though the introduction could've used a bit more subtlety. Meh. He'd learned from that, so he'd settle for being a bit quiet for the time being. At least, until it was convenient.

The hall to the meeting place was similarly colored to the outside, with windows placed with a few feet between them on one side of the hall, allowing the bleak red light to seep into the castle and paint it in a rather dreary, seemingly demonic color. Overall, it looked pretty damn cool. Like a secret hideout for a sorcerer in an old school RPG.

Then there were the ever so obvious double doors to what was likely their meeting place. They weren't nearly as massive as the one that had guarded the entrance to the airstrip, but they were fairly big nonetheless. Voices of varying tones and accents could just barely be heard behind it, conforming Tomura's earlier suspicions.

After only waiting a few more seconds, he placed a tactful hand on the door in question and shoved it open, causing a loud, echoing groan to silence those inside. Looking around the table, there were a total of seven people present, which, while a bit smaller than he'd been expecting, was a minor concern as compared to guessing where the hell they were from and what the hell they were contributing.

Of course, there were Emerald and Mercury, the loyal children ever present by their leader's side even now, crippled and beaten to the point of death. They wore the same outfits they had when he'd last seen them four months ago, a stark contrast to their boss, who'd changed rather drastically in order to accommodate for her missing limbs.

Her hair was much shorter, her left bangs barely reaching her lower cheek, which covered a black mask that appeared to be made of black glass over her missing left eye, and the scarring from said injury extended into a slight x-shape over the bridge of her nose, as well as having deformed and degraded the tissue of her left ear. She wore a long, dark red dress with one long, wide sleeve hiding what he assumed was her new left arm, though whether it was robotic or Grimmesque Tomura didn't yet know. The edges of the collar and the opening for the right arm are gold-colored, and the upper chest and left sleeve are decorated with golden designs. On the right hip, the dress had a black rhombus-shaped gem set in a gold-colored metal of the same shape, with feathers of varying shades of blue extending from the bottom of it. He couldn't really see anything beyond that, seeing as there was a blanket draped over the entirety of her legs in order to hide whatever replacements she likely had underneath. On her right arm, she wore a long, gray glove, the top of which had a gold-colored metal ring with curvy branching extensions going up her arm. Her right ear had a new, ring-shaped earring higher up than the dangling black gem earring.

"Well, well, well. Look who's late. Honestly, with the castle as hard to find as it is, I'm not entirely surprised. I'm Arthur Watts. A pleasure, I'm sure," said a man with a refined accent and haughty tone. Looking to his left, Tomura saw yet another of this person's associates. Despite the fact that he was sitting, his posture gave away that he was likely tall. 'Watts' looked to be a middle-aged man with a slim build and slightly tanned skin. He also had short black and gray hair as well as a mustache and green eyes. He wore a gray overcoat with yellow linings, a yellow dress shirt, and a black necktie. His pants were the same color as his overcoat. His yellow-buttoned undercoat and finger-less gloves matched his cordovan shoes, under which he wore yellow socks. All in all, he was probably one of the simplest to surmise: a strategist and an inventor. Likely from Atlas, if the accent held any authority.

"Oooh. So _you're_ the ones who the masked man sent to assist in the Fall, are you? I normally don't approve of those not loyal to our queen... but you-" another one pointed to Tomura with a single finger, "-you I like. Very, very much indeed. You have those hungry eyes. Like me! But they look to be a bit... dull, if I'm to be honest. Do sharpen them soon now, won't you?"

This one was rather... odd. He was pale, with gold eyes and a brown ponytail braided to resemble a scorpion's tail. He wore a white sleeveless jacket with leather belts strapped to it, along with white pants. His jacket was left open, exposing his bare chest, which was crisscrossed with prominent scars. His arms were covered with purple bandages and leather vambraces. He also wore leather boots covering his entire shin with knee guards. On each earlobe was a silver, ring-shaped earring, and near the top of his left ear was another matching earring. There was an odd bulge around his waist though. Not so much that it'd be unusual, but enough for someone who was looking to notice it. Was it a hidden weapon? Or maybe a faunus trait, like a tail? Either was likely, but he wouldn't be surprised if it was something else.

"Tyrian. You're being rude," said another, far gruffer and deeper voice than any other he'd heard that night, almost immediately shutting up this 'Tyrian' up, though not without the latter giving him a rather rude gesture by pulling down one of his lower eyelids and sticking his tongue out at him before slumping back into his seat with his feet pulled against his chest.

The owner of said voice was... big. Insanely large. Not in a 'har dee har, he's so fat' way, but even as he sat with a slight slouch to his own posture, he was clearly taller than everyone else in the room. He had short brown hair accompanied by a beard and hazel eyes. He wore a two-tone olive-green coat over a black 3/4 sleeve shirt, and a large belt. His pants were black, with a pouch strapped to each pant leg, and his boots were brown with white fronts. Interestingly, his rather hairy arms had some scars near the edges of his sleeves, leaving Tomura to ponder how in the world he'd received them to the point that they were so visible.

"That's enough out of all of you. These guests of ours are the very same that saved dear Cinder's life all those months ago. They will prove useful in the times to come," said a chilling voiced that almost instantly silenced any who would object. Her skin was a deathly pallor, covered with deep red and purple veins that ran up her arms and face. The sclerae of her eyes were jet black and her irises glowed a rather sinister shade of red. She had a black, diamond-shaped marking in the center of her forehead. She wore a very long black robe with red designs resembling eyes, a particularly large one dominating the center of the crest. She also wore a ring resembling an insect on her right index finger. She had white hair formed into a large, fan-esque bun with six unsymmetrical offshoots, from which a few odd ornaments were suspended.

So, this was Salem, eh? Tomura had to admit, he was rather impressed. With those few words she'd spoken, she'd already reminded him of his master, and how a few words from him could silence an arguing crowd without the assistance of a semblance. This was gonna be good.

"Thank you for welcoming us, Madam Salem," Compress said with a permanent smile painted across his mask as he continued, "It's a great honor to be working with you."

"Likewise. Well? Don't just stand there. You may be seated, if you so wish," Salem courteously said in response, though Tomura took note of the fact that while there was a lighter tone in her voice, even accompanying it with a slight upturn of her lips, she never fully smiled to match it. Nor did her eyes loosen their rather cold, analytical stare. She was being cautious. She'd likely taken note of the fact that he had yet to say anything at all.

But still, he and Compress took two of the ghost wood chairs that had been set out for them, while Torchwick preferred to move to the edge of the room and keep an eye on everyone, giving Salem a silent message of 'I'll stand, thanks.' If she was agitated by this, her face didn't show it.

Tyrian, however, did notice, and decided to be offended on her behalf. "Are you dismissing an offer from our-"

"Shhh-sh-sh. You hear that?" Torchwick said as he placed a hand to his ear while his other slowly went behind his back, reaching for Umbra's handle.

"... what are-"

In a split second, so fast that Tomura could barely register it, Torchwick had drawn Umbra and fired a round straight at where Tyrian's head once resided, grazing the man's cheek before embedding itself in the woodwork of the chair with a large indent, still smoking from the Dust used to fire it.

For a brief moment, no one moved. Well, no one moved from their positions of surprise, that is. The large man was already halfway out of his seat and looked to have half a mind to put Torchwick in the ground, Watts simply straightened his jacket, Mercury got into a quick stance while Emerald reached for her backup weapon, as did Compress, though in a far subtler manner, and the near-victim merely wiped a thumb over the wound, looked at the blood for a few silent seconds, glanced back up and gave Torchwick a rather deranged 'you got me' smirk before settling back into his seat, his face quickly reverting to that of an unapproving scowl.

The only ones in the room who hadn't reacted much at all were Cinder, Salem, and Tomura himself. The latter two simply gave each other the same cold stare they'd given everyone for the last minute or so, the tension not quite palpable, but brewing nonetheless.

Torchwick then twirled Umbra in a manner reminiscent of some of Vacuo's hunters and holstered the weapon once again before he placed his free hand behind his back once again, disguising a relieved sigh as he said, "Hmph. Must've been the wind."

Tomura honestly couldn't help but smile just the slightest bit under the hand of his father. Acting cocky when everyone else would either be acting terrified or running for their lives. Classic Torchwick. Even so, the look in his eyes said it was likely he'd been contemplating one of those things after he fired the shot out of pure habit. A rather violent one that he'd accidentally taken up because, as some had learned the hard way, Torchwick could never stand people ordering him around. He'd only taken Cinder's orders in the first place because the sly bitch had threatened his niece's life, and Tomura had learned very quickly to _**never** _ order him around like a grunt or a henchman, or you'd find yourself on the wrong end of a gun barrel very fast.

"Tomura. Do keep your companions in check," Salem said before her eyes briefly flickered to Tyrian, who suddenly looked rather ashamed of what he'd said not thirty seconds earlier.

"Sorry, Salem. My friend isn't the fondest of being... _forced_ to do things," Tomura said in an even tone.

"Well, he's free to remain where he is," Salem said as she changed the topic. "Now, we've already discussed our plans for Atlas, for the most part. But, to summarize, we will wait until Ironwood closes off the borders to proceed with the plan. It will likely take place after Mistral falls to ruin. At the same time, we'll be making contact with a pair of individuals from Vacuo who'll likely be of some use to bringing the city down from the inside out."

"Saved the best part for us, did ya?" Tomura jabbed with the same even tone, though Salem made no such effort to laugh at it.

"I suppose so. We have an informant on the inside of Haven that should put us in there without any problems. But, there are a few more angles that we need to approach the situation from. There's the White Fang, for one."

Tomura nearly flinched at the mention of the organization, but kept his composure for the entirety of Salem's explanation, learning the large man's name, Hazel, in the process. Man, if she ever found out that he and Adam had struck a deal behind her back, she'd probably... well, actually, he had no idea what she'd do, but if the reactions of everyone in this room were anything to go by, it wouldn't be pleasant for anyone. Least of all him and Adam.

"We've also started tracking down the Spring Maiden. The search will be led by Tyrian. He's quite adept at what he does."

"Oh, your words are too kind, Your Grace," Tyrian said with a deep bow. Well, as deep as he could go, seeing as he was sitting down.

"Really now? Well, personally, I thought you'd be going after the two that pose the largest threat to your operation. Am I wrong?" Tomura asked, knowing just who it was that he was referring to. If everyone's reaction; well, mostly Cinder's; were anything to go by, so did they.

"We know of them," Watts said, crossing his arms as he leaned back into his chair. "I understand going after the girl. She's likely the greatest threat to all of us as a whole. But the boy... well, all he really did was cripple one of us when they were already weakened. Wasting resources on some petty revenge without having it benefit the cause... I think you can see where I'm going with this."

"That _boy_ , as you call him, is Izuku Midoriya. And believe me when I say that the threat he poses either matches or dwarfs Little Red's."

At his name, Watt's eyes seemed to take some form of recognition. "Midoriya, hmm? I wasn't aware Hisashi had an heir..."

"Watts?" Salem asked with an intrigued tone.

"Oh, nothing major, my lady. Just remembering an old acquaintance. Well, I won't say that Tomura's information surprises me, but... I would say that, if it proves true, it's better to be safe rather than sorry." Watts rubbed his head to quell what seemed to be a minor migraine.

"Very well then. Tyrian, a change of plans. Spring can wait, for the time being. For now, you are to seek out this silver eyed warrior..."

The man looked absolutely joyful to hear the first portion of this order.

"... and bring her here. Alive."

A look of disappointment crossed his face after hearing the second.

"And because of this 'Midoriya,' I believe it is pertinent that you receive assistance on this mission. Our new recruit shall be joining you for the duration. You are to bring the boy here as you would the girl."

And now he looked absolutely livid at the prospect of being assisted in any way. "But... my queen! I am more than skilled enough-"

"It is exactly that overconfidence that can inflict the deadliest of wounds, Tyrian. He will be joining you, end of discussion."

Her words were sharp, to the point, and colder than ice. She almost sounded like his master did during the few times he'd ever seen the man _**royally** _ pissed off.

Watts, however, interjected with a point of his own as Tyrian sank back into his own chair in apparent shame. "On the subject of our new recruit, he has refused to undergo the operation to replace his eye. Says it's a 'reminder' of something, or some odd rambling like that. Are you sure it would be wise to send him out there without his full range of vision?"

"If he wishes to only keep one eye, then that is his choice. His strength is what matters to us, at least for the time being." Salem said as she once more changed the topic. "Now, let's get on to the Mistral plan. As I said previously, we were planning on having our insider-"

"I might not have heard this plan in its entirety, but if you're relying solely on your insider to keep things quiet, it'll never work."

And suddenly all eyes were on Torchwick, who tried, and mostly succeeded, in lighting his cigar while resisting the urge to buck and run. Keeping this in mind, he took a deep whiff of said smoke stick before letting out a large white puff, saying, "It doesn't really matter how high up this insider is. If they're in Mistral, then they're most likely in debt to some crime family or gang. If you don't get cozy with at least one of them first, they'll make your plan go to hell before you know what went wrong."

"And if this insider happened to be in one of the highest positions of office in the kingdom?" Watts asked again, his haughty tone returned.

"Then you're doubly fucked. They might be in 'high office' or whatever titles they've given themselves, but believe me, the real power in Mistral's down in the crime districts. There are three big players that you oughta keep in mind. There's the guy everyone probably knows about, Thoth. He's biggest in the realm of information, but that doesn't mean he doesn't have a hand or two in other fields. I wouldn't go to him with the plan, though. He's probably the closest thing the criminal underworld has to a saint, if there's such a thing. Hell, he's one of the only people who's trying to enact actual, progressive change in Mistral. So... yeah, don't cross him.

"Then we've got Little Ms. Malachite, leader of the Spiders. They've been trying to get a leg up in information and espionage for a good few years now, but they're mostly good for smuggling contraband and stealing dust and Lien. I actually worked with 'em, for a spell. Malachite doesn't have any qualms about the people at the top getting what's probably coming to them, but I'd only give her a tentative _maybe_ , 'cause I don't think she'd be the kind of person who'd condemn an entire city to ruin. She's a shit person, but even she draws the line somewhere.

"And... Oum, I really hoped I'd never have to even think about this guy ever again," Torchwick said as he quickly sucked his cigar down to a stump, which he proceeded to drop into the ashtray he'd opted to take with him. "And there's Kai Chisaki, leader of the Shie Hassaikai, one of the last old-school Yakuza families in Mistral, and currently the largest and most powerful. They also control most of what goes down in Mistral, and there are so many people in their back pocket that they're only a few 'accidents' away from having control over most of the city. Drugs, killings, extortion, bribery... human _and_ faunus trafficking... you name it, they're probably behind it in some way, shape, or form. As to the man himself... Chisaki is a germophobic, antisocial sociopath, with a xenophobic streak so large it'd make most folks up in Atlas rather shocked. And that's putting it _lightly_. But... he's also the most likely to go along with your plan. So long as it also serves his needs. I wouldn't trust him as far as I could shoot him, but he's really, _really_ good at what he does. And hella charismatic, for someone who hates talking to people."

And once again, silence returned to the room though not a tense, one, as had been the case ever since they'd arrived. Salem then unfurled her hands and turned to the orange haired man, asking, "Do you have a way to contact this Chisaki fellow?"

"Yeah, but we didn't exactly leave on the best terms. It might be better if I'm not the one who arranges this thing."

"I can handle that. From what people have told me, I'm quite persuasive," Compress said in a casual tone that gave off a bit of smugness from the masked man, who tipped his hat to the room as he stood. "Well, I do believe that was everything we had to discuss. I hope we haven't overstayed our welcome."

"Oh, not at all. I look forward to working with you in the future," Salem said as they left the meeting place. Tomura could feel her eyes on their backs the entire time. Yep. This was gonna be very good for them.

 _(meanwhile, somewhere in Mistral, Oscar's POV)_

A woman with blazing eyes stared him down as he stood defiantly before her, armed with nothing but a cane. The fight that ensued is long, hard, and painful, and yet he can hardly process anything that's happened during its length. The last things he saw were the cane he was wielding becoming a thin, singled edged sword of emerald light, his own body beginning glow a similar hue, and the burning amber eyes of the woman who eventually slew him.

With a deep gasp of breath, Oscar awoke from this dream, his eyes suddenly widening with surprise as he couldn't remember where he was for a few moments. Slowly, his breathing calmed, and he looked around, remembering what had happened the night previous. He'd stayed up reading and watching old hunter videos... he must've dozed off. Wouldn't be the first time it'd happened. And... wait, what time was it?

A quick look outside told him all he needed to know. Crap! His aunts were going to kill him!

Said near fifteen-year-old gave himself a once-over in a nearby mirror below where he'd slept, making sure his clothes would be work-appropriate. Same as the day before, his skin was tanned, with a faint, perpetual blush and freckles on his cheeks. His hair was an unkempt dark brown, and his eyes were hazel, his main iris's being forest green, with accents of burnt orange and yellow around his pupils. He wore a dirty and scuffed white shirt with laces across the upper chest. The sleeves were rolled up to his elbows, and there was a pocket on the left tricep. His olive pants were held up by orange suspenders and were tucked into worn, brown boots. The pants were patched over the knees, and a quilted cloth hung loosely out of his left pocket. His hands were covered by orange gloves, with dark green straps overlapping across the back of the hand in an X shape, and around his wrists. His neck was wrapped with a torn bandage, as it had been for the past few months. Auntie Shino had asked why he'd worn it, to which his biological Aunt, Beth, said it was 'to impress a girl he couldn't even maintain eye contact with,' which wasn't true in the slightest. It just got really cold in the mornings. He totally wasn't trying to impress someone who was probably the coolest person he'd ever met and who was likely headed for combat school in the next few days in some childish hope that she'd notice his efforts and maybe give him a few tips on fighting. Totally.

.

..

… moving on!

Oscar shook his head before he rubbed the remainder of the sleep from his eyes before he made his way to the large door of the barn and slid it open, the bright yet surprisingly soft auburn rays of the sun greeting his eyes as he stepped out and onto the soil of the Pine family farm. To which he almost immediately found an abundance of crows pecking at some of the stocks that had begun to grow just two weeks prior.

"Shoo! Shoo!" Oscar said as he rushed at said birds of death and thievery, waving his arms about in order to scare them off, which worked as was expected: they flapped the hell away from their crops.

 _Oscar Pine: the bane of crows everywhere. Ugh. We really need to finish repairing the scarecrow, like, today. We're lucky they didn't dig through the roots._

 _Well, time to start the day._

And the young farmer did just that, drawing water from the ground and booting up the irrigation system before he went to work out any blockages in the divots. It was slow work, but it was nice and quiet. Even though he really wanted to be a hunter, even after what had happened to Beacon, that didn't mean he couldn't appreciate the simplicity that this life offered. Didn't mean it would stop him from wanting more, though.

"Oscar! Crows bother us again?" he heard Aunt Beth calling from the other side of the farm, the boy in question not having much of a visual aid beyond her silhouette.

"Yeah! Don't worry though, they won't be back for a while," he called back. He was almost tempted to ask how his cousin was doing, but he knew how that conversation always went down. He was either going somewhere they couldn't find him or he was sulking in his room, not coming out unless one of his aunts asked or told him to do something. Not that he could really blame the kid. He'd probably have been like that too, had he lost his parents that young.

"You're good for the rest of the morning! I've got it from here. Oh! And tell Jackie I said hi!"

"For the last time, Auntie, it's seriously not like that!" Oscar called over his shoulder as he made his way towards the village proper. He meant it when he said it: he didn't really have any romantic interest in Jackie at all. She was just super cool and was like a big sister to him. She was the reason he got really into hunters, after all.

Along the beaten and trodden path to the village, Oscar took a moment to slow his jog to a halt as he noticed one of the many things Anima had to offer. It's sheer beauty. The trees around him were bathed in a coat of golden light that he couldn't help but stare at. This was one of his favorite spots to watch the sunrise, after all.

 _But... seeing the same sights gets old after a while. No matter how beautiful they are._

He stopped that train of thought before it turned into a tangent that would inevitably spiral out of control, as such things usually did in his mind, and set out for the village once more, his sense of wanderlust growing ever so slightly in the back of his mind.

 _(meanwhile, somewhere in mid-western Anima, Izuku's POV)_

Izuku took a deep breath of the fresh morning air outside of the inn that their group had settled into a few days prior. The rest of the group, sans him and Yang, had elected to go and face the Geist that had been plaguing the area for the past few weeks, the one they'd tracked just the previous night. Well, it wasn't as though they'd need them anyhow. Five people was more than enough to kill a Grimm like this, even if it was a Geist. But five people who were: basically a ninja, a cheery badass, a speeding sniper, an absolute powerhouse of force, and a strategist who could manifest a giant warrior from his Aura? Honestly, it was a bit overkill, but one could never be too careful.

But he was a little miffed that he and Yang had been left behind. Just because they'd worked their asses off to find the Grimm... actually, they were probably right to let them sleep in. Yesterday had been exhausting.

The green haired inheritor than brought his hand up to his face and gingerly ran his hand over the scar he'd received a few months ago, in addition to the markings that trailed his limbs. And his thoughts took him further still to the last time Process had activated. How long had it been? Two weeks? Three? Two and a half. He'd gotten everyone's Aura colors memorized as it kept happening in undetermined spurts, for when he could manage to get a handle on the ability itself. Ren's was Magenta, Nora's was a hot, Bubblegum Pink; not much of a difference, but he could tell who was who; Ruby's was Red, obviously, Shoto's was an odd, often swirling mix of Auburn and Sky Blue, and Jaune's was White. He had learned Yang's color a while back: Burning Gold, like a brilliant yet gentle sun.

He didn't know his own color, nor was he all that curious to find out what it was. Though he was betting that it would be some variation of green.

"Hey Greenie," Yang said as she joined him on the balcony of the inn, setting her forearms on the wooden guardrail as the burnt orange bandana covering the scar on her right arm slipped ever so slightly. She quickly noticed this, however, pulling it back up and tightening it a bit before Izuku could point it out. She'd often taken to wearing it almost everywhere in order to avoid the dreaded 'how did you get that' question. It had already happened once and... well, best not to dwell on something that unpleasant right now. "Enjoying the view?"

"Yeah. It's really beautiful. I kinda regret not coming here sooner."

"There is a reason they call this place an artist's wet dream."

Izuku held back a snort at that. "It's certainly that. But I really enjoy the air. It's very..."

"Clear?"

"I was gonna say calming, but that works better."

"To each their own."

There was a bit of silence between the two as the sounds of nature took their attention, at least somewhat.

"So... think we should've gone with the others?" Izuku eventually asked the blonde brawler.

"I want to say 'yes, how dare they go on a hunt without us,' but I kinda get why they left us here. I mean, I'd be a massive hypocrite if I decided to literally fight through my exhaustion. Still wish they left more than a note, though," Yang sighed as she dipped her head down in minor disappointment.

"Well, I think they'll be alright. As long as they keep on their toes, they'll probably have that Geist dead in the next few minutes," Izuku surmised with a confident yet still humble smile on his face.

"ITS ARM IS A TREEEEEEEEE!"

"I CAN SEE THAT! NOW MOVE!"

.

..

…

"... we should-"

"Yeah, let's go."

 _(meanwhile, the forest beside Fonsett, Jaune's POV)_

 _Great! Now his arm is a tree and it's on fire! How could this possibly get any worse?!_

As if on cue, a few of the many Beowolves that had been stalking around the area came out of the literal woodwork and started barking like the animal's they'd distorted.

 _… me and my-_

 _ **Master, dodge!**_

Thanks to the warning from Lancelot, Jaune managed to narrowly avoid a set of Beowolf claws that tore through his chest plate, though his chest itself was unharmed, leaving three large gashes in the metal before he summoned Lancelot's blade and arm to cleave the thing in half.

"'You'll be fine without a weapon,' they said. 'You're the strategist,' they said! 'You've got...' actually, they were right about that last one," Jaune realized mid-rant.

 _ **Besides, Crocea Mors was in rather desperate need of repair after... well, that.**_

 _Can we save this for when we're not in the middle of a fight?!_ Jaune said as he manifested one of Lancelot's gauntlets to snatch a lunging Beowolf out of the air and slam it into another, causing both to become ash almost instantly. It was also at that moment that Nora bounced over and clubbed a Beowolf that was stalking him from behind, taking its head clean off in the process.

"Watch yourself, fearless leader," Nora said, her new outfit rather untouched despite the carnage surrounding them. Said outfit was retained her gloves and a white top that was similar to her old one, though the heart cut-out on the top had a diagonal cut through it. She also wore a fairly short detached white sleeve on her left arm. Over the shirt, she wore a zippered, navy-blue bomber jacket with a somewhat damaged print of her emblem visible on the back and pink stripes along the sleeves. The pink bands of the jacket were tightened on her upper arms. Her skirt was slightly longer, with pleats that created some flair her previous outfit had somewhat lacked, with and two wide belt loops at the waist for her matching belt. She also wore knee-high, pink socks, just barely visible above her calf-length boots, which were white with pink laces and black mid-wedges, soles and tips. Her hair had also grown out somewhat, and was now almost shoulder-length. She also had some pink eyeshadow around the far upper corners of her eyes. She hadn't answered any of them when they'd asked why she started putting it on, so they didn't pursue the topic.

"Yeah, yeah, but-" Jaune interrupted himself mid-retort to slice a Creep out of the air with Lancelot's sword. "OKAY! BACK TO FIGHTING!"

As Ruby and Shoto held back the rather infuriated Geist, with speeding slices and shots backed up by elemental slashes and effects, Ren made his way over to his other two teammates, relaying, "Nothing we're doing is hurting it, and Shoto says that if he uses his ice on the arm it'll just make it bigger."

"Crap!" Nora said as Ren flipped over her and stuck Stormflower's blades into _yet another Oumdamned Beowolf_ , killing it almost instantly as, similarly to Nora's, his new outfit remained relatively unscathed. He was wearing his hair down, letting it flow downwards in a large, swept back mane that reached just past his waist. His outfit was also similarly colored to his earlier one, now with a longer, sleeveless tailcoat, with a sleeveless turtleneck just beneath it with red, tasseled ropes over the hips, and pants that were rather tight on his lower legs, and calf-high open-toed sandals. From his middle finger to his biceps ran gradient pink-to-black detached sleeves ending in metal armbands that clung snugly to his mid-biceps.

It was at this time that Ruby herself was flung back from the battle against the Geist, digging Cresent Rose into the ground to slow herself to a stop as she called over her shoulder, "Jaune! A plan would be nice right about now!"

Jaune quickly threw an 'OH, REALLY?!' look at the co-leader of their group, taking the short amount of time to again notice the lack of gore on her new outfit, which was rather good for them, seeing as washing blood out of anything was rather tedious. That and they needed to restock on medical supplies.

The rose themed reaper in question sported a white, high-neck décolletage blouse with brown, studded wristbands on her arms. Her outfit retained the use of a black skirt with red tulle underneath, somewhat similar to her original outfit, but her waist cincher had been replaced with an overbust corset with a red strip holding it in place. A black belt bordered in red held the magnetic clip for Crescent Rose and its ammo. She also had brown straps on her blouse that allowed her to wear a small brown backpack just beneath her cloak. In lieu of her usual full black stockings, Ruby now wore thigh-high stockings that reached a few inches below the hem of her skirt, decorated by an image of a long-stemmed rose. Her red-soled black boots contained four straps and buckles each. Her cloak now had a singular clip on the right shoulder in the shape of her emblem, replacing the cross-shaped clips from her original outfit. Both the cloak and the stockings were showing tears from all the traveling they'd been doing over the past few months. Her hair has also grown slightly longer, though it maintained the color gradation from black at the roots to red at the tips.

"Okay, fine, but keep those things off me! I'm gonna need a sec to think this out!" Jaune said as he started to compile everything they knew thus far about this particular Geist. It loved to possess stone, as it proved to be quite durable against bullets of all kinds, but it would quickly discard its limbs in order to protect its face-

"Wait, I got it!"

"Let's hear it then! I can only hold this thing off for so long!" Shoto said as he briefly retreated from the towering Geist, backing up to just in front of the rest of the group with both Veofolnir and Niohoggr in hand. His outfit hand remained undamaged for the entirety of the fight, a short-sleeved, unbuttoned, leather brown duster coat over a long-sleeved baseball shirt with a grey center, an icy blue right sleeve, and a bright auburn left sleeve. He also wore black pants beneath iron greaves, as well as a pair of grey running shoes and a pair of black sleeveless gloves to complete the outfit.

"We've gotta get the rest of the limbs pinned down, and then go for the head!" Jaune called for everyone to hear.

"It's a solid plan, but in case you haven't noticed, we're kinda surrounded on all sides!" Ruby shouted as she cleaved through yet more unidentified Grimm that just kept on coming from Oum knows where!

It was also at this moment that the distinct howl of a certain sword/scythe rang through the clearing, slicing through two approaching Grimm while the echo of shotgun shells tore through two more, making way for their unexpected but very, very welcome backup.

The first to emerge from the tree line was Yang herself, wearing the new outfit she'd completed just a few days prior. She wore a tan jacket with orange lining and gold edging, unzipped halfway to show an orange crop top. The coat had darker brown short sleeves, a thick collar that completely encircled her neck, and two long gold-trimmed rectangular tails, which seemed to flap almost dramatically in the wind that Tempest picked up. She also wore black pants with a brown belt across her hips, which had two pieces of dark brown material trimmed in gold attached to it. The first covered her left hip to the back of the belt and was folded over it, and the second was attached from the right hip and almost around to the other piece of material. She wore knee high brown boots with gold caps on the heel and toe, with the heel cap attached to a gold strap across the front of her ankle, and a gold zipper on the upper half of the front of the boots. A single small buckled strap was on the upper outside of her boots, and a purple bandana was tied around her left knee, in contrast to the auburn one tied tightly to her right arm where her sleeve didn't quite cover the oddly colored scar. A pair of black fingerless gloves completed the outfit, in addition to Ember Celica, newly upgraded and kicking plenty of monster ass.

"You started without us? Man, I really wanted to get my licks in on that thing," Yang said as she quickly snapped around and kicked a Grimm straight out of the air with the heel of her boot, which she then brought downwards with a devastating ax kick to crush its skull to smithereens. She'd been overly aggressive in combat recently. Was this some form of catharsis or something? Jaune honestly didn't know enough to make that guess, but he honestly wouldn't be surprised.

"You've got a plan?" Izuku asked quickly as he and Jaune stood side by side while the others gave them room to breathe and think. Izuku himself had recently gone under an outfit change, now sporting a long-sleeved, dark green shirt beneath an unbuttoned green vest with yellow designs running across the back and front, likely taking much inspiration from the ones on All Might's old hunter outfit. Fitted onto his shoulders were a pair of green, triple plated pauldrons that ran down to his mid-bicep, with a single, mid-sized line of yellow running down the middle of each, though the left one did appear to be larger than the right one. He also wore green bracers that ran up to the backs of his hands with a similar line design to that of the pauldrons running long ways down the center. He also wore baggy black pants with metallic green kneepads and thin yellow lines along the outsides of the legs, with Cirrus and Stratus strapped to his feet as per usual. A pair of fingerless black gloves in addition to the white, diamond-shaped metal half mask that hung around his neck completed his outfit. In short: it was a bit bizarre, very colorful, and instantly recognizable if you knew who you were looking for.

"Yeah, but we're gonna need to get the thing's limbs to stay still," Jaune explained.

"Say no more," Izuku said, almost instantly understanding the plan that Jaune had come up with, turning heel with Tempest in hand as he yelled to Yang, "We're gonna do Lemon Lime!"

"Yes!" Yang answered, blowing the brains out of a lunging Beowolf before she and the green haired boy paired off to take care of business, leaving him, Shoto, Ruby, Nora, and Ren to deal with the Geist in question.

"Alright! Ren, get the right arm as low to the ground as you can!"

"On it!" the ninja in question said as he sped off towards the tree-arm, jumping onto said appendage and dragging Stormflower down its length, using his own body weight to drag it downwards. Now, Ren wasn't the heaviest person by any means, but his downwards momentum was enough to bring it to the point that it was within kissing distance of the ground itself.

Jaune then summoned two of Lancelot's arms and grasped onto the trunk with all the might he could muster through them, pulling it free with a satisfying **SNAP** , and causing its rather horrifying arm to appear once more out of thin air. It was also at this time that Jaune used this opportunity to swing the tree around in a wide arc, catching it by the legs and putting the Grimm flat on its back with a loud **THUD**.

"Shoto! Ruby! Get the legs! I've got the other arm! Nora!" he said as he tossed a shard of lightning dust his teammate's way. "Charge up and get ready to bring the pain!"

"Got it!" Everyone said as they readied for their tasks, Shoto flash freezing the stone leg with Veofolnir and slicing it off as quickly as he could with Niohoggr, causing the giant Grimm to wail out in pain as Ruby then sped by the other, cutting through the stone so quickly that it almost seemed to take reality a few moments to catch up with the unnaturally clean cuts.

Jaune enacted a similar strategy to when he had taken off the Geist's tree arm, that being to rip it out of its socket. Said plan was indeed successful, and even as the Grimm tried to rise with the help of its arms, it was quickly pinned down by Shoto and Ren, the latter of whom pinned down its arms with Stormflower's blades while the former flash froze its torso solidly to the ground.

"NORA! SMASH!"

A loud boom emanated from the edge of the treeline, launching the bubbly grenadier high into the air with what was presumed to be a wide smile spread across her face. Another boom sounded from the business end of Maginhild, sending her spiraling through the air before the hammer met the Grimm's eerie white mask with a deafening **CRACK** followed by a hollow **BOOM**!

Stone shards and other pieces of debris flew every which way as a large cloud of dust was kicked up from the force of Nora's blow, causing Jaune and the others in the group to cover their eyes in response. After a few tense moments, they looked upon the carnage they'd wrought to the Grimm: torn literally limb from limb and now crushed into oblivion by the second strongest person there.

Just another day in the life of a hunter.

"Another one bites the dust!" Nora called out in victory as she stood atop the largest remain boulder of the Geist, Maginhild raised high above her head in triumph.

"So he does," Ren said as he smiled up at his longtime friend while Jaune and Shoto call out for their other two companions.

"Guys! We're done over here! You good?"

It didn't take long for Izuku to respond. "Yeah! We'll be right-"

"IZUKU! DUCK!"

The crack of Ember Celica's guns suddenly rang through the forest, causing several more birds who hadn't moved during the fighting to suddenly take off in panic. It also caused everyone in the clearing to immediately dash towards the sounds as quickly as they could.

 _(a few seconds away, Yang's POV)_

The splitting roars of Ember Celica were dull and nearly mute in Yang's ears. All she could hear was the sound of her heart in her ears, feel the red in her eyes, and all she could make sense of was the Ursa she was killing. Over and over she slammed her fists into its gaping mouth, eventually tearing its jaw free of its skull. And still, it wasn't enough.

Keep going. Keep fighting. Don't let it happen again. Don't let her die. Don't let him die.

 _Don't make the same mistake._

 _(Izuku's POV)_

"-ANG!" Izuku finally got through, his hand on her shoulder as her raised fist suddenly stopped mid-strike, letting her finally see the carnage she'd wrought upon the Grimm. Its head was almost unrecognizable, even as it faded back into ash; a bloody stump where there once sat a mouth full of serrated teeth and two glowing coals for eyes. She hadn't stopped even when Ember Celica had suddenly run out of shells to fire.

He quickly recognized the sudden slouch in her stance, quickly putting himself under her arm to support her weight, her legs giving out as he slowly lowered her to the ground. When he did, however, she clung to him tightly, as though she was afraid he'd suddenly disappear at any moment. She likely was.

"I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm so sorry," she muttered in a low tone. "I fucked up. I fucked up again. I'm so-"

"Shhh. You're okay. You didn't do anything wrong. It's over," Izuku whispered to her as he returned her hug and the others entered into the clearing, letting the two have their quiet as Yang started to get her bearings back. In a few minutes, she'd probably pretend that the episode didn't happen. To distance herself from the pain.

But Izuku knew full well that she couldn't run from her pain forever. Eventually, she'd have to face it. And she'd have to face it without him.

Just as he'd have to face his without her.

 _(thirty minutes later, Izuku's POV)_

Izuku and the others in the groups waited anxiously outside the blacksmith's shop, Shoto tapping his foot in some sort of rhythm while Yang tried her best to not look at anything but the ground. Ruby, Ren, and Nora were debating the name of their group in hushed tones, obviously still somewhat affected from what had happened not very long ago.

Izuku couldn't blame them. He certainly wasn't over it, and neither was Yang, if her suddenly subdued nature was anything to go by. He wanted to say something, but of course, that led to a billion other things, and one other thing in particular that they really couldn't talk about at the moment. They had to get to Mistral before they even thought about discussing it.

However, the door to the shop quickly opened up for them, and form the shop emerged the new and improved Jaune. He retained the black hoodie from his earlier outfit, but over it, he instead wore a modified pure white chestplate that covered a bit more of his upper abdomen, trimmed with gold lining and similarly colored bracers. Additionally, he wore black gloves with gold-colored, metal armor plates over his fingers, and he now wore a scarlet sash around his waist. It was nearly identical to the one that Pyrrha had once worn, though this one had a visible version of their friend's emblem stitched into the end of it. He also wore dark brown laced boots and a single brown belt with a small pouch for various dust elements worn around his waist. Corcea Mors looked better than ever before, with a pearly white finish and golden trim lining the whole of the weapon, though the design at the bottom of the shield was very reminiscent of Pyrrha's tiara.

Of course, Jaune still had the remains of her armor and weapons with him, as evidenced by the bag he quickly slung over his shoulder. It was his way of paying homage, he supposed, just as he had done with his own outfit.

"Alright! Lookin' good, leader!" Nora said with a wide smile, causing the others to nod or voice their agreement.

"Nothing can stop Team RNJRSIY now!"

.

..

…

"... that sounded better in my head," Ruby admitted as she deflated.

"It was a good try, sis. Certainly better than anything I could think of. What color has seven letters from all our names, anyhow?" Yang said as she patted her sister on the shoulder with a small but noticeable smile on her face.

"Not sure. But what color was that name supposed to be?" Shoto asked.

"I... don't know, actually. I kinda just went the simple version," Ruby said as she shrugged.

"It doesn't really matter what we're called," Jaune said as he sheathed Crocea Mors and placed it back on his left hip. "We've got each other's backs. No matter what."

And once more, another village helped and another point behind them, they set forth once more into the unknown.

And yet, the entire time, Izuku couldn't shake the feeling of guilt that had been steadily building over the course of the four months they'd been traveling. It had been there before, it wasn't unusual, but... seeing Yang like that, it... he couldn't help but feel like he was putting them all in danger by not telling them anything. But if they knew what he did, would they even be safe? After what happened with Pyrrha? He didn't know the right answer.

So he kept silent as they pressed on, the question and the guilt that came with it weighing him down more than Tempest ever could.

 _(meanwhile, the Schnee Mansion, Tenya's POV)_

It was a strange thing to be here. Especially in such a weak condition. He imagined that Jacque only invited him here because he happened to be in Atlas and he'd fought in the Fall of Beacon. To make himself appear noble, as though he would welcome all people, even cripples.

Bull. He knew how people like him were treated outside of hospitals here. Like they were worth less than nothing. The only people treated lower than them here were faunus, and even then, not by much. Atlas strove for perfection in everything. Anything less than that was simply unacceptable.

"Sir. We've arrived," one of the family servants said as the airship landed. "May I-"

"I do appreciate the concern, but I'll be fine. Thank you for offering, though," Tenya said as he placed his luggage onto the back of his wheelchair, an audible click confirming that it was secure. Of course, not everyone in Atlas was a perfectionist to a fault. Some genuinely wanted to help. Some were genuinely concerned, much like this man was.

But not Jacque Schnee. _**Never** _ Jacque Schnee. He accepted nothing but the best. Nothing but perfection. He hated any who would taint that vision. Faunus and cripple alike.

He wanted something out of this. No, he _needed _ something out of this. It was the only explanation that made any sense. It was the only reason he'd bother inviting someone like him. Especially since public opinion regarding both cripples and faunus was beginning to shift ever so slightly.

And so, as he wheeled himself down the ramp of the airship, his legs not quite ready to fully walk, he kept himself as guarded as he could as he approached the towering doors of the Schnee Mansion.

He hoped Weiss would be happy to see a familiar face.

 **A/N: And that's a wrap for this chapter of Team STIK! Hope you all enjoyed this latest installment! Here's to the next! And now-**

 **Review Responses:**

 **Thunder Dragon: It'll probably be a bit before the end of the Volume, although I don't plan for it to be quite as simple as 'they kiss and they're going out now.' This is RWBY we're talking about, and they do have stuff to worry about beyond relationship troubles. Like super deadly monsters and terrorist organizations. You know, the usual fare. They will officially get together by Mistral though, you have my word on that.**

 **As to requests, once I've posted the last ones submitted by Odin's Eye and Rune Dragon432, I'll be officially shutting them down, unfortunately. Sorry!**

 **Kaiser Dragon: The above paragraph applies. ^**

 **Rube Dragon432: It'll happen. Also, it should be up by now.**

 **Odin's Eye: Thank you for this! It'll be a real help! You're awesome! Also, it can be surprisingly fun to ship tease. At least to the point that it doesn't piss off your audience. And your request should be up by now. Thank you for all the amazing ideas you guys have sent my way! I really can't thank you enough!**

 **Next Chapter: Jan 25th**

 **Seeya in the next one!**


	45. Death and Diligence

**A/N: It's official. Volume 6 has been amazing. Just... wow. Rooster Teeth actually listened to feedback from Volume 5. Well, if you were nervous about Volume 6 being bad, I can safely say that it's probably one of the best in the series thus far. I'll do a full review of the Volume once all the episodes are out, so stay tuned for that!**

 **Also, we now have over 500 reviews! Alright! Thank you guys so much! I love you all!**

 **In the meantime, I hope you enjoy the chapter, even if it is a bit shorter than normal. Sorry about that!**

 **Also, who else is excited for Gen:Lock? Because it looks awesome! January 26** **th** **can't come soon enough! And the 29** **th** **too! KH3 is real and it's coming, baby!**

 **Disclaimer: I do not own RWBY or My Hero Academia. They belong to Monty Oum, Kohei Horikoshi, and their respective publishing companies. Please support the official releases.**

 **I do not own the cover image**

Chapter 45: Death and Diligence

The unnaturally white and almost barren halls of the Schnee Mansion felt unnatural to Momo in almost every way. Sure, she'd been here before, and there were many times she'd enjoyed her time here as well. But it was awfully eerie when Weiss wasn't around to talk to. Right now, the fact that she could hear a melancholic piano piece echoing through the halls made it all the more ominous, her footsteps the only other sound audible within the halls.

Of course, she wasn't entirely alone.

"My lady, are you alright? You seem troubled," Walter asked with concern in his tone.

"I'm fine. Just a little nervous, that's all," Momo admitted, knowing why Jacque had invited her to stay in the first place. It certainly wasn't for Weiss' sake. Urgh. How she loathed that man. Where was Shoto when she needed a really good hug to just forget everything for a few minutes?

"I know that Jacque is not the most pleasant of people. Were we anywhere else, I'd put him in his place without a second thought. But, we're on his turf, so we must play by his rules, as much as I loathe to obey them."

Said rules included dressing appropriately, to be as 'polite as possible,' as some with Jacque's hand in their pockets might say. Still, she didn't mind dressing up in something fancy every now and again, so she was unaffected by that particular rule. For the most part, at least. In keeping with said rule, she wore a deep crimson dress that covered her entire front while leaving her upper back exposed, the hem of said dress running just past her knees. She also wore a grey sash across her lower abdomen for noticeable, but not annoying, contrast with the dress itself. Her outfit was completed with a pair of black pumps.

"Well, let's find Weiss. I hope she'll be happy to see me."

"You'll not see her for the next few minutes. She'll be talking with father for a while."

That voice... Momo turned to where it had come from, revealing the youngest of the Schnee siblings, and the only male of Weiss' generation: Whitley. He had the trademark looks of a Schnee: nwhite hair and light blue eyes with a fair complexion. His hair was mostly pushed to left, although he did appear to have a bit of a cowlick now. He had grown since she last saw him, being fairly tall with a more filled out but still slender build. His attire consisted of a short-sleeved white dress shirt, the sleeves fastened just above his elbows by navy blue cuffs, each with twin gold buttons. Over his untucked shirt, he wore a light blue vest, with a black handkerchief in the right breast pocket. He also wore a black necktie, navy blue trousers and black dress shoes.

"Whitley," Momo greeted as she glanced briefly to the right, noting that he was standing just beside the family's music room, the white-haired boy leaning against the wall of the entrance while casually checking his fingernails. "I assume that was you playing?"

"'One should always seek perfection in what they pursue.' I wouldn't be a Schnee if I didn't at least try to live up to those words."

Of course he'd quote Jacque directly. The man was more of a strict teacher than he was a father in any fashion. But even so, she knew that Whitley would take praise anywhere he could get it, especially from Jacque. He was the 'defective one,' after all. The most loyal and devoted of all Jacque's children, and yet with his very birth he'd been the largest disappointment.

"Besides, I like the piece. It has a very... palpable sense of somberness."

"You always did like tragedies."

"Mm. Do be careful not to mention the Fall around either Weiss or father. It's still a very fresh wound for the both of them," Whitley said, looking Momo straight in the eye as he did. For just a moment, she thought she saw something beyond the child she used to know. A concern for family that wasn't there before, replacing the sense of wonder she used to see in its place.

Just what had happened in the year that she'd been away from the Schnee Mansion?

"I'll keep it in mind," Momo answered as she and Walter walked on the Jacque's office, where the two Schnees would likely be conversing.

Once they were out of earshot, Walter whispered, "I do not like that boy. He's far too reserved for someone his age. It's almost like he's planning something half the time."

"He's also barely fifteen. I'll be wary of him, but I don't think it would be fair of me to not at least give him a chance to prove himself different than his father. Weiss did so. I see no reason why he couldn't do the same."

And she meant it too. She could still remember the times when the boy had clung to Weiss and Winter's coattails, his eyes filled with light and awe every time. He was barely ten at the time. Such a fragile, hopeful thing. She dared to hope that some of that boy she'd seen so little of so long ago was in there somewhere.

But now... she had to see her friend.

 _(meanwhile, somewhere in Anima, Shoto's POV)_

Shoto couldn't help but feel as though there was something a bit off about how they'd been traveling without delay. Not that it was a bad thing. Heck, it had actually sped up their travel time significantly. They'd probably be at Pyrrha's hometown within a week or so.

Even so, it was best to be attentive. It was unusual for there to be no Grimm on the road. Very few would simply be considered incredibly lucky. None was practically unheard of. Nora and Ruby decided to count on them being incredibly lucky, but he could tell that while they were happy to not be fighting every day, they were keeping their guards up constantly. Just in case.

But, other than that, everyone was in pretty high spirits. Yang seemed much better than she had been two days previously, and she was currently conversing with Izuku over how to improve their combo moves. That or they were simply admiring the scenery and discussing it. Either was likely, and neither would surprise him.

He hoped that they'd talk soon. They didn't have to bottle up their feelings for everyone else's sake.

"Lien for your thoughts?" Ren asked as Jaune and Ruby carried on to the head of the group while Nora cheerily skipped on with her hands behind her head.

"You got that on you?" Shoto asked.

"You know what I mean."

"... how're we doing on supplies?"

"We restocked back at Fonsett, so we'll probably be able to save a bit of Lien at the next town. Who knows? Maybe we'll find a Grimm to kill and make more money for a change."

"Mm."

The silence between the two was an awkward one. They hadn't really spoke to each other before. Heck, this was probably the longest string of sentences they'd had in a single conversation. And it was currently going nowhere fast. Crap.

"Hey, Ren? You're from Anima, right?"

"Yeah. Me and Nora both. I don't really know where Nora was born, but I'm from further east. We've basically had each other's backs since we were... well, fairly young."

"You do seem really close. Are we gonna be passing through where you're from?"

"... maybe."

And that was where the conversation seemed to end. Shit. He just had to go and bring up something that was probably super painful for him. _Stupid, stupid-_

"Guys! The village!"

And then he looked up.

Clouds had appeared from seemingly nowhere, blotting the sun out completely as a melancholic grey hung over the small village of Xione. It might've been in part because of the smoke that rose from various buildings, some with walls destroyed or caved in, while some unfortunate ones had been entirely demolished. They'd stumbled into a massacre.

Shoto drew Veofolnir and Niohoggr and dashed into the village with the others at his heels, the RNJR portion of their party breaking off to help a gravely injured huntsman as best they could. He likely wouldn't survive. Still, he, Izuku, and a briefly hesitant Yang made their way deeper into the village to search for anyone else who might've survived.

House to house. Street to street. No one. Not a soul.

And then, the sound of teeth tearing into flesh, ripping it from bone before the ripping returned to the forefront of their hearing. It wasn't hard to find where the sound came from, a simple rounding of a corner and they were there.

The hard part came from what they saw next.

It was a small Grimm, a Creep judging by the lack of arms and the reptilian head. The body it had dug into was that of a young woman, brown hair splayed around her body haphazardly while her eyes, likely once full of life, were glazed over, having long since lost it. Her entrails were splayed about much like her hair, blood pooled all around her as the Grimm continued to dig into her body, undisturbed by the three hunters behind it.

This, however, did not last for long, as a sudden blur of green shot across the space and the sound of howling wind filled his ears, briefly causing him and Yang to cover their eyes from any debris that had been kicked up, temporarily blinding the both of them.

When they could see properly once more, Izuku was standing at the other end of the room, putting Tempest over his shoulder, his cloak fluttering in the brief breeze as the Creep dissipated into ash. His hand fell limply to his side, forming a balled fist as he stared down at the ground. He began to shake ever so slightly, muttering under his breath, "Damnit. Too slow. Too slow _again_..."

The shaking briefly got worse before he took a deep breath and exhaled audibly, wiping his eyes as he did so. Shoto took a step towards his partner, taking a brief look at his face to see how he was holding up. As he'd predicted, Izuku's eyes were the slightest bit red from the tears he'd shed and continued to hold back, and his jaw was clenched tightly into place.

"I'll... I'll search for others."

No specification. Izuku knew he'd probably only be finding bodies. He just couldn't admit it. It would be like giving up.

And still, he gave a silent nod. "We'll have to burn them. You know that, right?"

A silent nod told him all he needed to know. And so, he moved onwards, the sound of his boots against cold stone echoing throughout the space as he went to find anyone else he could.

Shoto glanced over his shoulder, towards Yang, who stared at the green haired boy's back with concern in her eyes. She wanted to go after him, that much was obvious, but there was a certain hesitation there as well. As if she wasn't really sure how to help him.

"... go on. He'll need someone watching his back," Shoto said as he sheathed his blades, the blonde brawler briefly looking at him before nodding firmly and taking off after Izuku, her own boots clicking against the stone in a far more rapid tattoo than his partner's had. Hopefully, her being there would at least give him a shoulder to lean on, if worst came to worst.

He knelt down to the body of the slain woman, taking a brief moment to gently close her eyes as he said, "I'm sorry we didn't make it in time. We'd do more, but...

"... this is all we _can_ do right now."

 _(meanwhile, the Schnee Mansion, Tenya's POV)_

Tenya was simultaneously impressed by the scale of the manor and disappointed by how sparsely the halls had been decorated. It was almost unnatural. Someone with the amount of money that the Schnee's possessed would've had their own halls look a bit more colorful than this. It was fairly unnerving, to say the least.

And that was why he'd found himself in front of the door to the man's office, helped in by one of the passing servants and just as quickly left in the room with the same man he had to be _very_ cautious around. Jacque Schnee.

The man had gray-white hair, unlike the nearly snow white that was a trademark of the family, with a similarly colored, bushy mustache and blue eyes far colder than anything he'd seen from the man's daughter. He wore a pure white, double-breasted jacket with a red handkerchief in the breast pocket, underneath which he wore a blue shirt and vest and a gray-white tie, printed with the same emblem on his shoes and above his study. He clear favored the symbol, though Tenya couldn't recall what it was meant to represent. He also wore a silver wedding band on his left ring finger, a symbol of everything he'd done to achieve his position. The man was ruthless in every way.

Which was why it surprised him that he seemed rather jovial at his arrival.

"Ah! Tenya Iida! So good of you to be here!"

"... yes. I was rather surprised to hear that you invited me," Tenya replied, the implication clear.

"Well, why wouldn't I? A veteran from the Fall? Why would I not invite you for what I'm planning?"

"... I'm confused. What exactly are you going to do?" the spectacled hunter said as he wheeled his way forward to Jacque's desk, the man sitting behind it in a show of 'courtesy.'

"We're going to be throwing a charity concert in the next three weeks. To show that we know how devastating the Fall was for everyone involved," Jacque said without missing a beat, as though he'd already anticipated explaining this and he rehearsed the entire thing. It was just artificial enough to be noticeable to anyone who knew what to look for.

"Well, other than the fact that I was there, why invite me at all? I'm sure that there are more suitable candidates."

There was a tense pause before the man responded. "Because you, the brother of Ingenium, the next in line the inherit the mantle, gave far more than any other candidate that I'd even considered."

 _So, it's a combination of the fact that I'm stuck in this chair and my family's influence. I'm not even surprised._

But he quickly cleared those thoughts. He had to stay focused, at least for the time being. "I see. Is there anything else you wished to discuss?"

"You'll be seated next to me and my son for the performance, as well as the daughter to the Yaoyorozu family. The matron of the Adel family will be there as well, though I honestly don't know her intentions as to coming all the way to Atlas. Endeavor was a surprise acceptance. I imagine he saw something that shook him up rather terribly. My daughter, Weiss, will be preforming the main piece at the concert. After the Fall, I think this would do her some good."

 _Some good for your image, you mean. Coco's mother is here as well? In addition to Shoto's lover and father? This is most certainly a plea for good faith._

"Speaking of which, is she alright? We weren't the closest at Beacon, but I am a bit worried after everything that's happened."

"She is... recovering. I do not know what she saw, but I imagine it must've been rather harrowing."

 _And you don't seem to care all that much, if the lack of a therapist is anything to go by._

"Well, I should go and see how she's holding up then."

"Very well," Jacque said as Tenya began making his way towards the door, only stopping his chair when the man said, "I also understand that you went through a particular procedure. How effective was it?"

…

"... we'll have to wait and see."

And that was all he would say on the matter. No need to give him any more ammunition than he already did.

 _(meanwhile, somewhere in Anima, Izuku's POV)_

It felt hot. That was what Izuku thought as he opened his eyes to the flames. No, it wasn't hot. Tense. It felt like something was happening, and he wasn't seeing it.

" _WHO ARE YOU?!"_ a voiced bellowed from within the flames, a voice he recognized almost instantly as that of Adam Taurus. As though commanded by this question, the flames parted like the curtain on a stage, showing the burning ruins of their battlefield as they faced off. His arm was not his own, being a new, strange coloration that reminded him of Tempest, with an armblade about the length of his forearm jutting outwards.

As suddenly as it had started, it was over, with Adam on the ground with his mask split in half, bleeding out as his form remained still. Izuku was never able to make out his face entirely, and this memory was no different in that regard. It was honestly rather disturbing, and kinda freaked him the hell out.

The next scene was another from the Fall. This time, he was staring down Cinder Fall, the woman who'd caused all of them so much pain, so much hardship, took one of their strongest fighters and greatest friends from them.

Her legs and left arm had been freshly bisected from her body, causing her to scream in absolute agony as he simply stared down at her with absolute rage. Izuku couldn't see his own face once again, not that he wished to see it. He knew what expression it likely held. He watched as the figure raised Tempest high, making to strike down at Cinder, run her through.

The movement began, the blade sweeping downwards as the howl of wind filled his ears. But he never saw the blow delivered.

And the next thing he knew, he was kneeling in a dark space. Not so dark that it was blinding, but it was dark nonetheless. He could see his limbs, and tried to move his head, to get a look around his new surroundings.

But then he looked up, and the figure that possessed the same body that he did looked straight at him; looked straight _through_ him, like he wasn't even there. And the eyes that this person possessed...

… they were laced with power he could scarcely look upon. And it terrified him.

Izuku suddenly jolted awake from the nightmare, taking a few quickened breaths before slowly calming himself and deepening them, ensuring that he didn't wake anyone else. Damnit. How long had it been since he'd had a dream like that? He couldn't quite recall, but it was enough for this one to be rather jarring.

The comparison to them being broken people that he'd made those short two months ago wasn't so inaccurate after all, it would seem. But he couldn't let the others see him like... well, this. Not for his sake. For their sake. For Ruby's sake. For Shoto's sake. For...

… for Yang's sake.

 _Quit it,_ he told himself. And he did try to keep his mind away from those thoughts, but... well, he probably wasn't going back to sleep for a while anyway, so, might as well get some practice in. Make sure something good came of this discomfort. Besides, he had a few kinks in his style to work out anyway.

As silently as he could, not a leaf crushed or a twig snapped underfoot, he made his way to a clearing, away from where he knew Jaune would be practicing under the supervision, and occasional assistance, of Shoto. He was within relative earshot, so he'd know if they were in trouble and they'd know if he was in trouble.

So, he removed Tempest from his back and started practicing. What started as seconds of an endless fight against invisible opponents soon blended into minutes of a frenzied melee that wasn't even real. But this was one of the better ways for him to build up a bit of confidence in his skills. You see, the thing about imaginary opponents is that they can be anything. From a ferocious monster to a master swordsman, everyone and everything was up for the beatdown. But here was the thing about imaginary opponents: no matter the fight, no matter the challenge, there was one inevitability: you would always win, without fail.

There was a reason he tried to avoid training like this as much as possible. Even having a training dummy would prove better than fighting something you could manipulate.

He stopped as he thought of that. How long had it been since he'd last seen Qrow? About... five-ish months? Man, it had been a while. He missed training with the guy. Sure, he was absolutely nothing like Toshinori; well, the persona that he put on, at least; but the red eyed reaper was certainly an accomplished hunter and more than deserving of his spot. Plus, while he wasn't the traditional type to inspire hope in others the way All Might would, he'd certainly given his students something just as important as hope: reliability, both on him in times of need and on the skills he would impart to them.

Izuku then slung Tempest over his shoulder and let out a heavy sigh, slumping to the ground as his father's cloak fell around him, giving him some shelter from the chilly breeze that made its way through the clearing. He was running out of things to think about. He really wanted to practice with someone, preferably with either Ruby or Yang, since he did need to touch up on his scythe and hand to hand skills. Maybe it would-

 _No._

 _Stop thinking about it._ _ **Stop**_ _thinking about it._

 _I'm in control, Oumdamnit. I. Am in. Control._

And yet, as his thoughts began to wander back to the nightmare he'd had that very same night: Adam's echoing question, Cinder's harrowing screams, and the figures intense silence and the unknown potential it had...

He honestly couldn't help but start doubting that phrase, no matter how many times he repeated it. Nor could he help but be afraid of his own potential.

 **A/N: And it's done! Hey! Sorry the chapter is shorter than usual. College is starting back up again, so that was part of it, but even so this was a particularly short part of the Volume, even though it was really good. Anyway, I hope you guys enjoyed it, and I'll see you next time, where we'll be reuniting with our good old pall: Katsuki Bakugo.**

 **All hail Lord Explosion Murder! Even if he is kind of an ass. And now;**

 **Review Responses:**

 **Thunder Dragon: Yeah. I wanted to take a more realistic approach to their trauma. I honestly hate stories that 'fix' a character's trauma entirely through someone else's actions, because it's lazy writing and takes away from that character's agency** _ **in their own story**_ **, which is something that any self-respecting storyteller of any kind should avoid at all cost. While I certainly don't think my attempt will be perfect, I'm going to try my damnedest to portray it as best I can.**

 **Rune Dragon432: Yes, but, as was said in the previous chapter, they'll eventually have to face their pain on their own. Here's hoping they're strong enough to do it. Also... I have a feeling you're going to absolutely love the finale episodes of Volume 6...**

 **Guest 1: Thank you! I hope you enjoyed this one as well! As to the crossover idea, I have considered something like it in the past, but as to what comes after this story, I'm not entirely sure. I might do a request or I might do something of my own. Or I might step away for a while. But I'll cross that bridge when I come to it. And nice quote! Hope you enjoyed and I'll see you in the next one!**

 **Odin's Eye: I'll certainly try to implement as much of the actual Berserker lore as I can, though I might not be able to include it all. I hope I'm able to show that Yang, while she is getting better, isn't done dealing with her trauma. And she probably won't be for a while.**

 **Midgardsormr Jr: I hope I can follow through on the buildup! And I hope things get more exciting now that I'm back. Hopefully with less explosions.**

 **Pheonix Wizard: Well, while I do think he'll certainly support her, she'll have to stand up on her own. I just hope I can make it satisfying. And yeah. At this point, especially after Enji's arc in the manga, Jacque is somehow even worse than Endeavor. Which is saying something, considering where the man started.**

 **Black Fang: … you know Shoto's in Anima with the RNJR group, right? Tenya's the one up in Atlas. And... well, let's see if Bakugo's rubbed off on him at all, shall we?**

 **Leviathan's Heir: Not too much longer.**

 **Gorosaurus Fan: Here's hoping they'll be alright.**

 **KongKing94: Too true.**

 **MechaGhidora543: Yes. Yes indeed.**

 **Dragon Fan: I would, but I'm the author, so...**

 **Enku: I'll cover you!**

 **God-King Ghihorda: Many more when I'm done.**

 **Mecha Manda: Shoto's in Anima. He's got a girlfriend.**

 **Gojifreak: Shoto's in Anima. I didn't include him enough in the last chapter, did I?**

 **King Ceasar Jr: I suppose it is. Keep the light burning bright.**

 **Huh. Didn't mean for that to rhyme, but there ya go!**

 **DD Lore Nerd: Many more. This is Remnant after all!**

 **Guest 2: Cool! Fly the rainbow flag! Seriously, considering Volume 6, it's basically almost canon. They're also kinda adorable together.**

 **Welp, that's everyone! Hope you all enjoyed!**

 **Next Chapter: Feb 15** **th** **(it should, hopefully, be a longer chapter)**

 **Seeya in the next one!**


	46. Red Rage, Grey Secrets

**A/N: Hey all! Back again with another chapter! Oh man, I've been having such a fun time! Kingdom Hearts 3 is out and it's amazing! I've been having the time of my life! I seriously recommend the entire series from start to finish, it's just so awesome!**

 **Well, enough of me rambling about video games. Enjoy the chapter!**

 **Disclaimer: I do not own RWBY or My Hero Academia. They belong to Monty Oum, Kohei Horikoshi, and their respective publishing companies. Please support the official releases.**

 **I do not own the cover image**

Chapter 46: Red Rage, Grey Secrets

Bakugo didn't often go above deck if it wasn't to get food or fresh air, or to maintain the minimal contact with other people he required to keep his own sanity. But, to be frank, he'd nearly run out of things to do to keep himself occupied. His mom had told him that meditating in extreme temperatures would help him, but so far he'd only been able to do normal meditation. Honestly, he would've stayed above deck to at least start on his heat meditation, but there were too many people around up there for him to actually concentrate. And those damn kids were very, very loud.

Now, with nothing else to do, and only a day and a half away from Menagerie, he basically had no choice but to go on deck. The sunlight was warm, and a bit bright for his tastes, but not quite as unpleasant as he thought it would've been. It would also seem that he chose appropriate clothing for his venture to this island, judging from what he now saw some of the other passengers wearing. He'd opted to forgo the more complicated stuff used to resist heat and instead went the old-fashioned way: a sleeveless black shirt with the red sigil of a direwolf's head emblazoned across the back, along with dark grey cargo shorts that cut off just below the knees. In addition, he wore relatively tough but light tennis shoes with red designs across a primarily black body, as well as crimson combat wraps that ran from his hands to his elbows. They weren't really there to make a fashion statement, he was just wearing them to take some of the stress off of his arms. It also helped that they weren't quite as bulky as his gauntlets, even if they did offer a bit less protection.

"I see you're finally up and about the place," a familiar but kindly voice said behind him. It was then that Bakugo turned to find the captain of this particular cruise ship. He was nice enough, and though Bakugo didn't know his name, he held an odd sense of respect for the captain.

"Yeah. I kinda just ran out of things to do," Bakugo admitted to the captain.

"Must've been quite the list, considering how long the journey usually is."

"Mm."

There were a few moments of silence between the two as the waves beneath them lapped at and sometimes made contact with the hull of the ship.

"... well, I don't suppose you've got any stories to share, would ya?" the captain eventually asked.

"Why're you asking?" Bakugo shot back.

"Well, talking to someone just... passes time, I suppose. And when you've been doing this for upwards of thirty years, sometimes you just really need the distraction."

"Heh. That's fair. But trust me old man, I don't have any stories you'd want to hear about," Bakugo said as he leaned a bit more against the railings.

"They too personal?"

"Something like that."

"Well, if that's how you feel, then you don't have to say nothing," the captain said. "I'd recommend talking to someone though, doesn't have to be me. 'Sides, these trips can get pretty boring, sometimes."

"... 'sometimes?' What do you mean by that?"

"These waters have their fair share of dangers, young man. If you ever want to know 'bout 'em, I'd be happy to regale with a tale or two sometime!"

And with that, the captain turned and walked back across the deck, likely making his rounds, while Bakugo stared after him for a few seconds before resuming his earlier position, gazing out at the endless expanse of turquoise and blue. It was certainly more serene than he was used to. He liked it though. It was certainly preferable to... well, a couple of memories in particular started to come to mind, but he managed to shove those down quickly enough.

It was around when he was having those thoughts that he was suddenly bumped into by a cloaked figure, who gave an apology to him in an oddly familiar voice before they began to move on.

"No worries," he responded as his attention turned back to the ocean. He then heard a quick set of footfalls approach him as a relieved voice asked, "Bakugo? Dude, is that you?"

… _wait a damn minute..._

"... Gunchucks?"

Sure enough, that same figure, having now discarded his cloak, was the same blonde monkey faunus that he hadn't seen since the fall, Sun Wukong, or, as he'd nicknamed him, Gunchucks, after his favored weapon. Sun quickly removed his hood with a smile on his face, as though he was happy to see any familiar face at all. He still wore the same outfit that he'd seen him in at Beacon, though it, in addition to his weapons, looked surprisingly battle-worn, with a few scuff marks lining the shirt and a hole in the right leg of his jean shorts.

"Aw man, it's so good to see you in one piece! Is everyone okay? I didn't get to see much of anyone before I went back into Vale."

"Erm... I'm not really sure, but last time I saw them, they were alive," Bakugo answered honestly. He hadn't seen anyone from Beacon since the Fall, and while he wanted to be optimistic about their statuses, there was always a bit of doubt in his mind as to their ultimate fates.

"Oh... well, at least they're still kicking. Hopefully..." Sun said as he leaned against the railings of the ship, as though he'd been carrying something heavy and wasn't quite done with it yet.

"Yeah. Those bastards won't give in for anything," Bakugo agreed, deciding to not question Sun on where the hell he'd been quite yet. For the moment, though, it was nice to have a familiar face around. Even if he didn't know Sun all that well.

"So... where've you been?"

"... might as well," Bakugo said as he began to regale Sun with a few stories from the past four months. Sans the Berserker stuff, of course. That would take way too long to explain, and even then, he was pretty sure Sun would either call him crazy or laugh in his face. Possibly both... probably both...

 _(meanwhile, the Schnee Manor, Tenya's POV)_

Again, Tenya had to wonder why on Remnant this place was kept so cold. If he didn't believe in scientific explanation, he'd be tempted to believe Klein's jokes about the balancing of hot air. Who knows? Maybe it was a preference of Jacque's. Granted, it was a rather annoying preference, but one that he would have to put up with for the duration of his stay.

But, it did give him a reason to enjoy simpler pleasures. Like hot coffee. How long had it been since he'd actually been able to have a cup of this?

 _Too long, it would seem._

It didn't take long for someone to join him on the balcony with their own mug of coffee. "Enjoying the view?"

Tenya turned his head slightly to see the person he'd come to reassure: Weiss Schnee, now dressed almost entirely differently than from when he'd last seen her. She now wore a short, glittering dress with a color gradation of blue to pale blue at the hem, a sweetheart neckline, and a white, tulle petticoat. A white ribbon was wrapped multiple times around her waist, and over the outfit was worn a slightly sheer long-sleeved blue shrug fastened at the collar with a large sapphire broach that had three pendants dangling from it. Printed on the back of the shrug was the Schnee Crest. Completing her attire were dark blue wedge heels and sapphire drop earrings.

"As much as I can," Tenya answered before taking another sip from his coffee mug. It was so strange, to see Atlas from this high up. It was a beautiful sight. One he didn't think he would ever quite get used to. He wished the others were here to see it with them.

As though sensing his thoughts, Weiss began, "I know it's beautiful for many people. And truth be told, it's one of the most spectacular sights I've ever had the pleasure of knowing, but... I guess... after all these years, it only seemed to serve the purpose of reminding me how lonely I was."

Tenya gave a solemn nod to that. This place was certainly had an ominous sense of isolation hanging all around it.

"Well, I hope that us being here lessens that feeling somewhat," Momo said as she too entered the balcony, the door quickly sliding shut behind her.

"It does," Weiss assured her friend. "I hope my father wasn't too hard on you two. He can often be... rather demeaning."

"I've dealt with him before. He's already thrown his worst at me," Momo said.

"It's nothing I haven't heard before," Tenya said too. "I did hear him bragging about various guests he's invited to the concert. Apparently, Coco's mother is coming, as well as... Endeavor."

.

..

…

"... the top hunter is coming here?!" Weiss exclaimed in surprise. "Why didn't he tell me?!"

"Or me as well?" Momo asked in a frighteningly neutral tone.

"It's likely because of your shared connections with Shoto, and that you would likely object to it. My leader and I never spoke all that much before... everything, so Jacque must've thought I was the safest to divulge this information to." The spectacled boy gave a dark chuckle. "His overconfidence makes me sick."

"... is there anything we can do?" Momo said as she placed her hand under her chin in a thinker position.

"Not much," Weiss answered. "If the arrangements have already been made, then there's just nothing we can do this late into the preparations. We'll just have to keep quiet about our disagreement, at least for now."

"I don't like this," Tenya said. "I don't know the full story, but there was certainly bad blood between Shoto and his father. Especially given the match between Izuku and Shoto during the festival."

"There is," Momo answered again in the same, neutral tone. "And while I don't like Endeavor in the slightest, he's still the top hunter. As much as I loathe to admit it, he is good at what he does. Even if he isn't as reassuring as All Might."

And that was where the conversation lulled and ended. As Tenya once more looked out across the view of Atlas, this time he wasn't given the grand sense of scale and beauty that he'd first seen. Despite the others being next to him, he couldn't help but feel just the slightest pang of loneliness. He couldn't help but wonder how often Weiss felt the same.

 _(meanwhile, somewhere in the waters of west-northwestern Menagerie, Bakugo's POV)_

"So how'd you get down from there?"

"Calmed down, climbed up the rope, burned the knots off with my semblance and used what was left to get myself down relatively unscathed."

"That... doesn't sound like something you'd do."

"I took my time planning out my payback after that."

"There we are!"

Huh. The captain was right about talking. The sun was already beginning to steep beneath the horizon, painting the ship in an almost ethereal golden hue as it glided across the dark blue waters of the expanse. He and Sun were currently trading words in the cafeteria of the ship, which was currently bustling with chatter and people, mostly faunus folk, ensuring that they wouldn't be interrupted or overheard.

"So... how's your team? Last time anyone saw you, you were heading back into Vale to help them out."

Sun's face slowly began to fall at that question, his eyes quickly busying themselves with the half-full glass of water sitting in from of him. As he took a deep breath and let out an even deeper sigh-

 **BOOM!**

A sudden impact rocked the ship, sending some people to the floor while others balanced themselves on the walls of the hall or the tables and counters bolted to the floor. Bakugo and Sun looked to each other and surmised what had just happened. They'd either hit one of the nearby rock spires on accident, or they were now in danger of being sunken by a Grimm.

With a loud, earsplitting roar coming from the forward deck, it was clear that it was the latter. The two wasted no more time and rushed for the entrance to the deck, the doors opening with a firm click, leading them to their twilight lit battleground where they saw their opponent.

The Grimm was enormous, having all the telltale coloration of its species across its long serpentine body and bone-like scales lining its underbelly and actual bone spikes protruding from its back. Its skin was dark, only disturbed by the glowing red gills that lined its upper neck. In addition to this, it had a pair of short, clawed arms, and a large white skull with horns slanting upwards and red designs running throughout it, the glowing yellow coals it had for eyes completing the signature look of a Grimm. It was a Feilong, no mistaking it. The only aquatic Grimm larger than it was a full-grown Orochi, and those things had eight Oumdamned heads.

A few semi-distant gunshots drew their attention next, leading their eyes to find Blake with Gambol Shroud in its gun form firing at the monstrosity. Said cat faunus apparently had a change in outfit from the last time they'd seen her, now donning a long white tailcoat with dark gray lining and a sleeveless black crop top beneath it, which had rectangular and diamond-shaped cutouts around the neckline. Additionally, she wore a white belt over black fitted pants. Across her torso was a diagonal strap that contained a smaller magnetic clip used to sheathe Gambol Shroud. She wore thigh-high black heeled boots with gold-colored edging around the top. The left boot had a belt wrapped twice around the thigh. Each boot bore her emblem in white on the outer side of the thigh, and a white pouch was attached to the back of her belt.

As the Feilong Grimm unclasped its jaw, preparing to fire it's bolt of energy upon the unprotected deck and put a massive hole into the ship, Sun burst forward from where he stood, his weapons forming into a staff as he thrust it towards the blast like a spear, diverting the blast and causing it to flow rather harmlessly through the metal of the hull down to the water below. Sun then quickly twirled his staff and placed it over his shoulders, his other hand now hanging over the other end as he gave the beast a coy smirk.

"Sun?!" Blake exclaimed in surprise. Honestly, while Bakugo was somewhat surprised as well, there was a time and place for this kind of crap. Namely when they weren't about to die.

"Quit staring, start fighting!" Bakugo yelled to her as he launched himself towards the Feilong's snout with his semblance, planting both of his feet into it before letting loose another explosion to propel himself forwards and maximize the force, sending it careening out to sea once more as Bakugo was left hanging in mid-air from the attack. Satisfied that they now had some breathing room to formulate a plan, he flipped himself around before gravity could take full effect and launched himself back over to the ship with a steady stream of cracks coming from his palms, landing on the deck with only a slight thud.

"You're here too?! What is-"

"Oh my fucking Oum, can we please have this conversation _later_?!"

"Erm... guys..."

By the time the two turned their heads to see what Sun was addressing, the Feilong had already sprouted its bone-lined red wings and emerged from the water with a mighty roar. Crap. Now it was fucking airborne. And he didn't bring any guns.

Welp! You only live once!

"Fire the heavy cannon!"

An even louder rush of sound emerged from just behind them, a large cannon with smoke now pouring from the barrel and what it launched just barely missed the wing of the coiling Feilong.

"Well, that didn't work!" Sun yelled over the ring in their ears.

"No shit!" Bakugo retorted.

"We've gotta get that thing away from the ship!" Blake yelled.

"Great! I love making diversions!" Bakugo yelled with sarcasm as he once more launched himself towards the giant beast, hollering at the top of his lungs, "HEY! OVER HERE YA NUMBSKULLED FUCKWIT!" as he launched himself just close enough to make eye contact before rushing for the rock spires in search of cover.

Out of the corner of his eye, he saw Sun and Blake take advantage of the diversion, launching themselves from the ship and into the air as they aimed themselves towards the beast's wings. Smirking to himself, he then began to scamper up the rock spire he landed on and perched on the very top, waiting for an opportunity to strike.

Blake took to slicing through the wing quite well, managing to get through the bottom half of the left wing and make it almost useless, and, if the cry from the Feilong was anything to go by, it was likely very painful. Sun, while not as clean or elegantly as the cat faunus, did manage to do some major damage to the wing itself, his gunchucks suddenly a blur of buckshot and force as he attacked the wing without remorse, and a large, gaping hole all that was left from the damage he'd done.

Bakugo then leaped from the spire of rock and let gravity take over as he started to speed up, explosions from his hands crackling as the sped him onwards. His fingernails grew a bit longer, into claws, darkening his fingertips just the slightest bit while his hair pigment turned just a bit lighter and his eyes began to glow like rubies. This was all he could handle of his Berserker powers, at least for the moment. That meditation on the ship hadn't been for nothing, after all. It would just take some getting used to.

"HOWITZER IMPACT!"

The explosion from his hands didn't leave quite as much damage as a full Howitzer, but it was enough to send Bakugo flying through the air once again, his hands aching from the sheer force of the blast itself. He wasn't gonna be able to use his hands for a few more seconds. Hopefully the others would pick up on that fact and catch him.

But then, of course, the world just took a look at his handiwork and spat on it, evidenced by the fact that the Feilong was once more roaring and coming straight for him with one last desperate push of its wings, ripping them both down their middles as it just barely managed to meet his trajectory. He could see the damage that the Howitzer blast had done, exposing about a quarter of its face due to the damage. That was it. That was all he'd managed to do. Shit.

 _C'mon... c'mon... work damnit!_ he thought as only the tiniest spark emerged from his hands despite his efforts. Well, there went that plan. No explosion, no mid-air trajectory change.

The crack and shatter of a mirror were the next sounds to greet his ears, followed by the sound of a flare and the feeling of a hardwood deck against his back. Someone had just saved him from getting eaten.

The blonde direwolf faunus managed to slowly get himself propped onto his elbows, where he picked up a scent that he once thought he'd imagined on the ship.

… _Minty?_

Sure enough, there she was, now sporting an entirely different look. She wore a whitetail jacket with a pink interior and one wide, broad tail; though it had certainly seen better days, thanks in no small part to the Feilong, which had taken a massive chunk out of the bottom half. She also wore brown pants, black gloves, and black and white boots with very high heels and multiple buttons on each side. Under her jacket was a brown corset, curved in the middle and at the bottom, exposing her hips. She also wore a multitude of necklaces, which hung haphazardly around her neck. As she turned to check that he was okay, Bakugo saw her real face for the first time. Her hair, once done up in puffy black twintails, was now hanging loose, reaching almost all the way down to the lower third of her torso, and was now split between three colors: a frosted pink on the right, a rich, chocolate brown on the left, and a few gradual white streaks that sparsely appeared throughout the former. Her eyes were different as well, now being a split between the twin pigments of her hair: bright pink and rich brown. She suddenly blinked, seemingly causing her irises to shift to white. Or maybe a very, very light shade of grey? Either way, it was weird, and something that he didn't get to process fully as her eyes quickly went back to their split color. Sitting atop her head was a small but rather classy looking black top hat, completing the outfit. She looked entirely different, but the scent definitely belonged to her. A two-ton tub of Neapolitan ice cream. It was her, alright.

It seemed odd, but something about her appearance seemed a bit off. She almost looked like that one person that Team RWBY had run into during their highway skirmish... with... Torchwick...

… _well, shit._

Before either of them could really process their presences fully, a sudden roar brought them back to reality, and the fight at hand. The Feilong had broken from the assault that the other two had been putting on it and heading right towards the ship, and, in turn, was heading right for them.

Minty then offered him a hand up, the look in her eyes simply telling him, _Talk later?_

Bakugo, wanting to get rid of the Feilong as soon as possible, took her hand and firmly nodded, and was promptly pulled back to his feet as she twirled her weapon of choice into a firing position in front of her. It was Melodic Cudgel, Roman's favored weapon.

 _Looks like that talk might be a long one._

She fired the cane straight at the exposed portion of the Feilong's face, catching it almost directly in the eye as the flare burst into red light, causing it to wind off course and crash into the ocean blue to the left of the ship. Damn. She was actually a pretty good shot with that thing.

Also at this time, Sun and Blake hopped on their respective doubles in order to get back to the ship, and, after sticking the landing rather nicely, looked up to see Minty standing right next to Bakugo with Torchwick's cane now hanging haphazardly over her shoulders with a satisfactory smirk on her face.

Which quickly turned to a look of 'oh shit' when she saw who had just landed on the deck of the ship. And, as Blake's eyes quickly found themselves on the tri-colored girl in question, Bakugo realized why.

"You!" She yelled as she marched right up to Minty, only stopping the barest few inches away from her before continuing, "What the hell are you doing here, Neo?!"

The girl in question, now revealed to be 'Neo,' flinched back a bit from the abruptness of the question. She quickly recomposed herself though, and pointed to the port bow of the ship, which revealed the Feilong once more coiling up and readying another attack. It seemed to be very upset about the loss of its wings.

"... if we all survive this, _we will have words!_ "

Neo promptly rolled her eyes and made her way, with a minorly shocked Sun and a very angry Blake in tow, towards the port side of the ship, Bakugo quickly following them as he tried with all his willpower to not make the timeless sarcastic gesture of slapping himself in the forehead, instead deciding to test out his semblance to see if it was back in working order. The satisfying crackle and small booms in his palms confirmed that his semblance was back, albeit with some minorly aching joints.

The ship suddenly started to turn in the direction of the Feilong, causing the four to slightly stumble from the abruptness. Then, the captain's voice rang out. "Hunters! If you can get that thing to stay in one place, we can ram it and take its damn head off with the heavy cannon! Sound good?"

The four glanced at each other, though Blake didn't look anywhere near Neo, and nodded, agreeing to the plan that was being put into place.

First, Sun opted to make only a single clone that bounded towards the roaring Feilong, narrowly avoiding being caught in its jaw before it suddenly enlarged at a rapid rate, gripping the bottom half of the Feilong and pinning it to the ocean from whence it had emerged.

Sun's face told all who looked that this was taking immense concentration and likely wouldn't last very long, only further compounded when he yelled out, "Little help?!" with a voice so strained with was a wonder that he managed to say anything at all.

Not even a second later, Blake launched herself from the ship with the help of a double and, with a few course correction shots from Gambol Shroud, was able to get herself to a nearby landmass and threw her weapon in its sickle form at the Feilong's body, quickly wrapping around its body before Neo grabbed the weapon mid-flight and made right for another small jutting of rock, burying the weapon almost down to the hilt and pulling it even further down.

"FULL SPEED AHEAD!" the captain and Bakugo yelled in synch, though the latter's order was followed by much swearing. Almost immediately, the ship plowed forwards with a thunderous roar of its engine and made for the Feilong's now vulnerable hide.

The ship met the beast's scales head-on, causing a sudden shake through the ship as it plowed into its upper body. It flailed wildly and desperately in reaction to this, a mix of whimpers and roars filling the air as it tried to escape its bonds and flee back into the ocean, to hunt another day. Sun, now pushed to the brink from the pure concentration, stumbled, causing his giant double to begin to flicker and lose its hold for the briefest of seconds before grabbing hold again.

Then the Feilong began to charge one last desperate blast of lightning in the hopes that it would be enough to free it. It angled its head down towards the deck at the front of the ship, the energy in its mouth visibly arcing and crackling-

 **KABOOM!**

And suddenly, the blonde direwolf was launched from his perch on that same deck, planting both of his feet into the bottom of the Feilong's gaping maw and launching another explosion quickly afterwards, causing its head to snap upwards and causing it to fire its blast prematurely, soaring harmlessly into the sky with a loud crack that could've easily been mistaken for thunder.

But he wasn't done. As soon as the blast had been taken care of, Bakugo dug his now extended claws into the exposed flesh of the Feilong, causing it to again cry out in pain as he began scaling the Grimm, feeling his canines elongate and his hair turn lighter and longer before he reached the apex of his climb: the very top of the Feilong's head. With an inhuman howl. He once more planted both feet into the beast's snout and extended his arms behind him, yelling through the slowly worsening bloody haze, "WE'RE PULLING THIS FUCKER DOWN ON MY MARK!"

His 'mark,' simply put, was when he caused a massive, crimson explosion to launch the Feilong, and him in tow, down to the front of the ship, where the heavy cannon lay waiting and ready as the head collided with the front, miraculously not causing it to tip over from the sheer momentum and force as Bakugo held the head in place. Having no time to argue with this, Sun's giant double pulled with all its might to keep it pinned, even as it flickered and weakened, while Blake and Neo spared each other the hostility, at least for the moment, and pulled on their respective ends of Gambol Shroud's ribbon, causing the mid-section to fall into place as well.

All of that happened within seconds. And the battle, long, arduous, bloody, yet so seemingly short, came to an end when the Red Berserker yelled at the top of his lungs, his voice beginning to warp from his transformation, **"SHOOT THIS THING DEAD!"**

A roaring boom sounded from the cannon in question, burrowing itself into the skull before exploding in a rain of shrapnel, causing Bakugo to shield his face with his arms as he felt pieces finding their way into what flesh was exposed. For several seconds, all he could hear was the sound of the Grimm slowly fading into ash and several footsteps slowly moving towards him as he tried with all his might to calm himself down, to reign himself in.

The battle was over.

He'd won.

 _They'd_ won.

No one had died.

 _They were all okay._

Bakugo then let himself breathe a sigh of relief as he let his arms down, the shrapnel that had filled his arms and lower torso clattering to the floor with dull, metallic thuds. He only managed to take two steps forwards before he felt his legs give out. C'mon. He'd been through longer fights than this. Maybe it was because of the inactivity from all the meditation?

This question, however, went unanswered as he suddenly found himself being caught and slowly put down on the deck by a pair of surprising small and delicate hands. He managed to barely crack open his eyes to see Neo cradling him like he was a little kid. Why did she look so relieved? He was fine.

"Hey... Minty..." he began, his voice hoarse. "... we need... to talk..."

And those were the last words he could get out of his mouth before consciousness fully escaped from his grasp.

 _(a few hours later, the deck, Bakugo's POV)_

This had certainly been one hell of a day. After waking up in the ship's infirmary alongside Blake and Sun, with Neo avoiding any and all eye contact with them until Blake asked to talk to her, he had been successfully rehydrated and was now somewhat recovered enough to walk the deck again. He could now hear Blake rather unfairly chastising Sun just a few dozen feet away, and Sun wasn't stopping her from venting, instead taking her anger in stride. It did seem like she'd been stressed out for a while. This would probably do her some good.

Though he did wish that she'd be a bit less... confrontational. From what he saw of Sun, he didn't even know that Blake was on the ship in the first place. Actually, why was he on the ship at all?

A tap on his shoulder brought him out of his thoughts, causing him to tun and see his sort-of friend, Neo, now in a new outfit since the one she'd worn during the fight with the Feilong was basically shreds now. It consisted of a brown jacket that hung just below her shoulders and above her chest, the bottom hem reaching her mid-thigh, and had pink trimmings on top and was pink on the inside, seemingly held up by two brown belt shoulder straps. Accompanying that was a gray scarf and tight white vest that hugged her figure and exposed her bust, with two slightly draping flaps that showed the interior of the vest was also pink. In addition, her forearm-length gloves, form-fitting pants held up by a subtle belt, and heeled shoes that ran halfway up her calves, were all of a matching white color. And through it all she still had that top-hat from her earlier outfit.

"You sure that outfit isn't a little much?" Bakugo asked sarcastically.

Neo, momentarily surprised, quickly recomposed herself and typed out a response. _"This stuff's actually pretty light, considering I've got another one for colder weather."_

"Tch. Seriously don't get why you'd need more than one version of the same outfit, but to each their own, I guess."

There was a brief moment of silence between the two as the waves continued to lap at the side of the boat, a melancholic sound of distance that was almost consistent enough to be equated with a clock ticking on and on without end or interruption.

"... so, how'd that talk with Blake go?"

" _It consisted of a lot of screaming, yelling, and blaming me for stuff that I did and didn't do. Honestly, I expected worse."_

"Meaning?"

" _I thought she'd try to shoot me before I could get a word in edgewise,"_ she answered with a straight face.

"Yeah, I think she has... issues."

" _Don't we all?"_

"Fair point."

…

"Your real name is Neo?"

.

..

…

" _Yeah. Sorry for lying."_

"The hell are you apologizing for? You technically didn't lie, you just didn't tell me everything, with good reason. Besides, we barely knew each other for like, two weeks, so telling me that would've been... problematic, to say the least."

There was a silence that highlighted Neo's surprise before she rapidly typed out her response. _"I didn't expect you to take it this calmly."_

"Honestly, if I was told this a few months ago, I probably would've decked you. But, I guess spending most of this trip meditating gave me 'perspective' or some crap."

" _At least you're honest about it. Also, glad to see you haven't quite lost that attitude."_

"Really?"

" _Of course. You wouldn't be nearly as fun to talk to if you didn't have some sass. I actually kinda missed talking to you. You were a lot more understandable than most of the people I worked with."_ she typed, and despite that last line, Bakugo could tell that she somewhat missed her old colleagues. There was a pause in her typing. Brief, but noticeable.

But Bakugo made no mention of it, instead continuing the conversation. "Me too. You're probably one of the only people I didn't have an urge to blow up within the first five seconds we'd met."

" _Really?"_

"Really."

Neo held her hand over her mouth as she silently chuckled to herself, causing Bakugo's lips to upturn ever so slightly before he turned back out to the open sea, the tri-colored girl eventually recovering from her silent laughter and joining him in leaning her forearms against the railing.

There was a more comfortable silence that followed. This was an odd reconnection to someone he hardly knew. He honestly expected this conversation to be so, so much longer. He still had so many questions for her. Why was she going to Menagerie? What happened to Torchwick? Was said crime lord the uncle she'd mentioned all those months back?

But for now, he let them lie. There would be time to ask them later. For now, he had to get to the island nation in question and find this Pull Punch guy. And maybe deck him for living somewhere so far away that he had to be cooped up on a ship for almost two straight months just to get there.

 _(meanwhile, somewhere in Mistral, Oscar's POV)_

And Jackie still wouldn't teach him anything about combat. C'mon, it's not like he was going to go off and hurt someone on purpose! He just... wanted to be ready in case something happened! That, and...

Oscar sighed as he slung his hoe over his shoulder, making his way towards the barn as the sun continued to peek over the horizon. They'd be having dinner soon. He opened the barn itself to find it barren of people with the exception of one: his cousin, Kota.

He never wore something that would be associated with farm-work, preferring to don a button-up, white collared shirt, dark shorts, and black boots. Kota himself had short, spiky black hair and wore a red hat with golden, spike-shaped horns on the front. He almost never took the damn thing off.

As per usual, Kota only looked at Oscar for a few short seconds before turning his attention back to 'something worth his time,' that being making sure none of their hay was rotting. Oscar had become accustomed to this, having long since learned of his cousin's hatred of hunters, and went towards the back where the other tools were to place his own back in its place.

A click from the entrance told him that Kota was done with his work and currently making his way back to the homestead for dinner. Oscar resisted the urge to sigh again. Kota had never particularly liked him even before he found out about his dream. Now he wouldn't even talk to him unless he absolutely had to. Not that he could blame him. If he'd lost his parents _that_ young instead of...

… _best to just not think about it._

Oscar then turned heel and made for the entrance of the barn, only stopping when he noticed something out of the corner of his eye. He turned to the mirror they kept in front of the barn's sink, covered here and there with bits of natural grime, but still, he noticed something... off about his hair. His curiosity peaked, the hazel-eyed boy approached the mirror, his eyes narrowing the closer he got.

 _Is that... is my hair turning grey? What the hell?! I'm turning fifteen in a week, I shouldn't be getting grey hair!_

It was then that the gray spot started to slowly grow, causing him to start panicking as to what was seemingly happening. Then his reflection seemed to grow in height, while he himself did not, convincing him that, while whatever was happening wasn't happening to him, it was still quite the cause for concern. At least, for him.

In the place of his own reflection stood a man. He looked to be middle-aged at the eldest, but his presence, even in the mirror, gave off a sense of unknowable age. He had tousled silver hair and thin brown eyes. He had a light complexion and sharp facial features. Interestingly, he had black eyebrows, suggesting that he may have had black hair when he was younger. He wore shaded glass spectacles on the bridge of his nose, and a small, purple, cross-shaped pin on the dark green cowl around his neck. His outfit mainly consisted of an unzipped black suit over a dark green, buttoned vest, and green shirt. He also wore black trouser shoes and long, dark-green pants.

"No... no way..." Oscar whispered to himself as he tried to get his arms to move, to try to wake himself from what could only be a dream.

" _I'm afraid that this is the furthest thing from a dream, Oscar."_

"... you just... how do you know my name?"

" _Well, seeing as we're sharing a mind, it's not all that difficult to learn your name, young one. Ah! But where my manners._

" _Greetings, young Oscar. My name is Professor Ozpin of Beacon Academy. So, now that that bombshell is out of the way... any questions?"_

 **A/N: And that's all for this chapter! Hope you all liked it! Sorry that this one took longer than the usual fare, but in my defense, I mainly did it to gather my thoughts for the review of Volume 6 at the bottom of this chapter. And now:**

 **Review Responses:**

 **Thunder Dragon: I did particularly enjoy writing out the imagery for that part of the chapter. It's definitely something I'll revisit in the future, both near and far.**

 **Midgardsormr Jr: Nah man, you're fine. And Izuku certainly isn't the only one who's having this inner dilemma. The other cast members are dealing with it in their own ways, but some will have to face theirs earlier than others.**

 **God-King Ghidora: That is certainly the question. Let's hope they don't lose themselves in it.**

 **Enku: Their psychological trauma is most certainly the larger threat to them at the moment, no matter how much they may want to put on a front to deny it. I've actually been in and out of therapy for years. Let's just say I was a very unbalanced kid growing up. I'm a lot better now, though, so I know what you mean. Sorry for bringing up bad stuff. Hope you're doing alright!**

 **KingKong94: It most certainly is. I'm glad you liked that part of the chapter.**

 **Gorosaurus Fan: I mean, yeah, I think I'd probably puke my guts out if I saw what they did. As to the Raven part... well, let's just wait and see.**

 **King Ceasar Jr: Most certainly.**

 **DD Lore Nerd: Indeed.**

 **Mecha Manda: That is the simplest explanation for their merry band of adventurers. And I don't currently have anything planned out for Tenya or Weiss romantically, but... I mean, who knows? It could happen. We'll just have to wait and see.**

 **Odin's Eye: Well, they do have Qrow on their tails, so...**

 **Rune Dragon432: Glad to be back! And yes, Qrow most certainly does have quite the issue to contend with.**

 **Now that that's all out of the way, this is your official spoiler warning for my review of Volume 6 of RWBY. If you haven't seen the Volume itself, I highly recommend you do so, it's really, really good. Now, on with the review!**

 **Holy shit, the premiere of this volume was probably the best out of all six! God, I love that first episode so much! The entire train fight was awesome, and I still can't get over how amazing everyone was in their roles! The second episode was no less entertaining, and offered up some genuine tension despite the fact that there wasn't any action happening, and it also reinserted Ruby into the role of the main character. Finally! She feels like a proper protagonist again!**

 **As most of you might've guessed by now, the third episode was by far my favorite out of the entire Volume. Specifically because it gives us two things that I absolutely love: lore and backstory. It explains Salem's rather jaded behavior throughout the previous Volumes she's been in, and also explains the pure hell that would eventually become Ozma's life. Or... lives, I suppose. It certainly goes part of the way to explaining why he doesn't let people in that easily and surrounds himself with lies. The one time he'd told someone the truth, literally everything he cared about was ripped away from him with the sole exception of his cane. I think that might be why he's so attached to it. As to the gods of Light and Darkness... the word to describe them here would most certainly be "Greek," as in they themselves are very flawed despite holding themselves above mortals. That's not to say they're intentionally malicious or anything, but they are very... human in their depiction. That's not a compliment, it's just an unfortunate fact.**

 **Now, episode four, as I understand it, divided people as to who was justified in doing what. What with Qrow punching Oz while he was inhabiting Oscar, Yang laser focusing on the end part of the memory sequence and going kinda ballistic, and Oz himself dipping out from the situation, there was definitely a lot of blame getting thrown around with both reasonable and not so reasonable arguments.**

 **What's my two cents? Everyone was justified in how they reacted. Qrow just found out that the man he'd trusted for a very long time had been lying to him from almost the moment they'd met, and even though Oz had a good reason that doesn't change the fact that Qrow** **was** **lied to; Yang has serious abandonment issues and just found out that someone who she'd decided to trust had been lying to her,** _ **again,**_ **despite him promising to be open with everyone about everything** _ **;**_ **and Ozpin himself just relived one of the most traumatic incidents of his entire multi-century lifespan. That, on top of everyone demanding answers, getting punched by one of the people he trusted most, then getting metaphorically abandoned by that same person... honestly, I don't blame him for reacting the way he did. Does he have a lot to explain? Yes, of course he does. But that doesn't change the fact that he was put under** _ **intense emotional stress.**_

 **There was no other way that this episode was going to go down. But, one person that everyone seemed to keep forgetting about in all of this, even the characters in the show, was the only one who was caught in the middle with literally no say in this argument despite also getting punched by proxy. Oscar. The kid who was literally being dragged along for the ride up until the end of this Volume.**

 **I genuinely like Oscar, and I hope they do more with him as the series goes on. I can understand why people might call him forgettable or one-dimensional, but for me, Oscar has something that almost no one in the cast seems to have nearly as much of at this point in the story, except for maybe Ruby, Jaune, and Qrow. Potential. There's a lot they can do with him, and I hope that wherever he's taken next is both fitting and satisfying!**

 **Episodes five and six actually kinda scared me, especially the Grimm in episode six. There was a sort of eeriness surrounding the entire Brunswick Farm. Wasting away in your bed, knowing that you're going to die, but not caring enough to do anything to prevent your own death... that's fucking scary as hell. I kinda wish that they'd picked up on the obvious queue of "don't go to sleep!" I think that would've made these two episodes just... perfect. Now, the Apathy, as Grimm, can be most simply explained like this: zombies who are actually terrifying. They suck the will to go on right out of you, until you eventually feel nothing at all. And you waste away.**

 **I also liked Weiss doubting the point of their mission, showing that she does have some sense, and her burning down the farmstead, because 1) I loved the Checkov's Gun scenario they put in for it, and 2) THE APATHY IS DEAD, YOU GUYS! TIME TO CELEBRATE WITH BEER AND TAP DANCING!**

 **Actually, don't try that. You might die or something.**

 **Another thing about this Volume that I absolutely loved was Maria Calavera. Just... everything about her. And I loved her backstory in episode seven. It was an absolutely amazing fight and showed just how much of a badass she was and still is. All hail the Grimm Reaper!**

 **I also liked the subtle world building with the mixture of Mistral and Atlas cultures in Argos. If we ever go back there, I hope we're shown more of the city, because I think that it would be the perfect setting for something like a crime/mystery season, if we ever get that. A fan can dream.**

 **Cordovan was... well, a diehard Atlas citizen, to be blunt. There are some people who can embody both the best and worst parts of their country, sometimes simultaneously, rare though that is. Her turnaround at the end was something I felt may have been a bit rushed, but it didn't feel as though it came entirely out of nowhere, it just could've been established better. Feel free to disagree if you feel so inclined.**

 **Now, while some people think Jaune took things a bit too far when he learned the truth, I have to ask those same people one thing. What were you expecting? Of course he was going to react this way. His partner apparently died for no good reason, as far as he was concerned at that moment. While I do think that he shouldn't have gone that far, I also recognize why he reacted that way. He's human, and humans do stupid things sometimes.**

 **As for episode nine, I can safely say that Mercury has just been upped on my favorite villains list, because OH MY GOD, THAT ACTUALLY HAPPENED?! Just... holy shit, I have so much more respect for him than I did before. I mean, he's done some really bad shit but... damn.**

 **Also... *sniff*... oh god, I'm crying again! RIP Pyrrha. If you've seen the episode, you already know which part I'm talking about.**

 **And now, we're down to the final four things that I wanted to talk about: Adam, Blake, Yang, and Bumbleby. Let's start with the first one.**

 **Adam, in my eyes, really redeemed himself as a threat this Volume. And his plan, while immensely creepy, is a path of logic I could certainly see him following. A twisted, really fucked up logic, but logic nonetheless. And that reveal... damn. I did not expect to see** _ **that.**_ **I thought the scar that Izuku gave him in this story was bad, but now I really want to know what in the hell happened to him. Also, there was this one line that I cannot stop thinking about. "You didn't leave scars. You just left me alone." (A. Taurus, The Lady in the Shoe) It is so, so fucked up, and it captures his mentality perfectly. And, while I do think that they could've waited at least another Volume before killing him off, I think the way he did die was very... fitting. Stabbed in both the back and the heart by the two people he damaged the most. I honestly can't think of a more suitable death.**

 **Blake has no complaints from me in this Volume. She's still a badass, and she's still awesome. I do like her trying to comfort Yang in the shed and fucking up. It showed that she's not perfect and isn't Shonen-psychic. You know, where the protagonist knows exactly what's wrong and exactly what to say to comfort their friend? She doesn't have that. She didn't know what was going on in Yang's head and that has consequences, somewhat straining their friendship before she gets it right by the end. And I know that people point to her line as another dumb line, like some of Raven's lines in Volume 5, but personally, I think it was meant to convey that they're not relying solely on each other, but they can lean on each other for support when they need it. It could've been worded better, but the meaning is there all the same.**

 **Yang was a bit of a disappointment. Just a bit. Not to the point that she was unenjoyable, far from it. In fact, she was probably one of my favorites this Volume. But I do think that she shouldn't have been as stable as she was during the fight with Adam. Some desperation mid-fight would've driven the point home that this wasn't easy for her, mentally or physically. Really one of the only complaints I have about the Volume. Other than that, I thought she was amazing, and I can't wait to see what happens next.**

 **Now, as I understand it, the Bumbleby moments weren't exactly received by everyone as setup. Some people called it queerbaiting and, from what I've heard, others even had the gall to make callous jokes about Monty being "killed by bees." If the last thing isn't true, which I pray that it isn't, someone please correct me. While I don't have much of a problem with the former argument, as their reasoning comes from a place of genuine concern (at least most of the time), hearing about the latter made me want to put my fist through my screen. I don't think I even have to explain how fucked up that is if it's true. My advice if someone does make a joke like this? Ignore them. I know, I just complained about how pissed off this kind of stuff makes me, but most people are just doing it for attention. Deprive them of that and they'll get sick of it too.**

 **As for the moments themselves? Well, this was the Volume that really opened up the possibility for Bumbleby actually happening, at least for me, and I hope that, if there is a romance planned between them, they get together sometime within the next two-ish Volumes or so. Otherwise, those queerbait concerns will become realized, and that's not fun for anyone involved. Now, I've said before that I'm not going to let the canon pairings have any drastic effects on the pairings for this story, and I'm gonna stick by that; but! If it works in both the canon and in this story, I'll try my best to implement some of the canon pairs, provided they make sense and I don't have anything planned romance-wise for the character(s) involved. For example: as far as I'm concerned, Saffron is still married to Terra, and Adrian is still their kid. I apologize now to anyone who takes issue with that, but that's how this is going down.**

 **And that's all I really have to say on the Volume. This was probably one of my favorites, and I personally give it an 8.7/10. Very good, but could do with some improvements. I hope that if they learn from the feedback of this Volume as they did for Volume 5 (now down to a 5.5/10 after some major reflection), Volume 7 has a good chance of becoming the best Volume in the series. Now... *turns to unrevealed Vol. 7 poster*** _ **please don't suck, please don't suck, please don't suck...**_

 **Next Chapter: March 1** **st**

 **Seeya in the next one!**


	47. Breakdowns, Beatdowns, and a Bar

**A/N: I have recently become re-obsessed with my favorite Final Fantasy game, FFIX, and it's just as good as I remember it being. Though FFVII is definitely a close second. Hey, quick question for you all: what's your favorite RPG, if you have one. Mine would probably have to either be FFIX or Kingdom Hearts 3. They're both just so good! Anyway, enough rambling about videogames. Enjoy the chapter!**

 **Actually, before that, I'm going to be putting this up:**

 **TRIGGER WARNING FOR: PTSD, extreme guilt, self-loathing, depression, and anger issues.**

 **The reason I'm putting this up here is that I know these kinds of things can be very painful. While my descriptions here are only as accurate as I can currently make them, I still urge you to take caution, because this may bring up some painful memories if you've experienced one, some, or all, of these things. Proceed at your own risk. You've been warned.**

 **Now, with that out of the way, I do hope you enjoy the chapter despite the bleakness. Now! Onward!**

 **Disclaimer: I do not own RWBY or My Hero Academia. They belong to Monty Oum, Kohei Horikoshi, and their respective publishing companies. Please support the official releases.**

 **I do not own the cover image.**

Chapter 47: Breakdowns, Beatdowns, and a Bar

"..."

" _..."_

The silence continued for several more seconds before Oscar rather suddenly slapped himself across the face, likely in some feeble attempt to wake himself from this 'crazy dream he was having.' Ozpin wished he could be as young as Oscar again for a brief moment before a sudden flash of multiple puberties quashed that thought in an instant. All he was left with was the sense of hollow dread that he would be in a teenager's body once more. Luckily, this sharp pain in his cheek was proving to be rather distracting, thank the gods.

" _Ow."_

"Yeah, I didn't... wait, you felt that?!" Oscar exclaimed in surprise as he briefly rubbed his cheek to dull the pain.

" _Keep it down before someone hears you. Try... thinking to me. That usually works better than talking directly."_

"Erm..." Oscar let out, hesitance clouding his mind as he started doubting his own sanity. How in the hell was Ozpin, fucking _**Ozpin**_ , Headmaster of Beacon Academy, in his head?! He'd heard that the professor had fallen in the fighting, but if they were going by reincarnation theory, _this was not how reincarnation was supposed to work!_ Maybe he was going insane?

" _I can assure you, young Oscar, you are quite sane."_

"But-"

" _Think, don't speak."_

Oscar resisted the urge to groan as he thought, _Like this?_ with sarcasm dripping from each word.

" _You could use less sarcasm, but it will do. For the moment, at least."_

Oscar resisted the urge to slap his own head in frustration at this sudden arrangement, turning away from the mirror in question in order to start thinking more clearly. C'mon. It was just in his head. There was no way this was-

" _I've been conscious for all of two minutes, and this is already getting old."_

"Were you expecting me to be calm about this?!"

"Oscar! Beth's asking for you! Are you still in the barn?" he heard Aunt Shino call from their homestead.

 _Oh crap!_

"' _Oh crap' indeed. You'd best move along before you draw anymore suspicion."_

"And how the hell am I supposed to do that with-"

But by the time Oscar's eyes moved back to the mirror, Ozpin was gone, as though he'd never been there in the first place. The only evidence was the small but still noticeable streak of grey towards the right side of his bangs. Worried that someone would notice, he quickly tousled his hair further, hiding the streak from plain sight. Okay. Now that _that_ was over with...

"Coming Aunt Shino!" he called back to his second guardian, emerging from the barn and shutting the large sliding door behind him, then dashing for the homestead with the faintest whispers of suspicion on his mind. He'd just sleep it off, and then he could pretend that it never happened.

 _(meanwhile, somewhere in Anima, Izuku's POV)_

Things were starting to get supremely strange, and not in a good way. At least, in Izuku's opinion. Even though their journey for the past two weeks had been entirely unhindered by Grimm, that was only one of the seeming oddities that he kept noticing. Even though Anima was notorious for housing a vast and diverse range of Grimm species and types, they'd hardly seen a Beowolf in days. There were times when they ran into some, but they were few and far between.

Ruby wrote it off as good luck, as did Nora. At least, that's what she said. What she implied was far different. He knew that this was bothering her too, and everyone else in the group had at least noticed it by now. So, he kept his eyes open, trailing towards the back of the group while the others marched onwards, chatting about their travel routes and joking around a little, to lighten up the mood.

 _Urgh... I stayed up too late again. Man, I miss good coffee..._

A tap on his shoulder pulled him out of his thoughts, turning to see his partner standing next to him as they continued to walk at the same pace.

"You alright?" he asked with a bit of concern in his tone. Crap, were there bags under his eyes now? Like he wasn't already worried enough about the scar across his face scaring people. He was turning into a younger version of Aizawa, at least appearance-wise. He could actually feel a bit of scruff starting to grow on his chin. Not all that noticeable, mind you, but enough that it got occasionally annoying.

"I'm getting by," he answered honestly. He wasn't about to lie to anyone, but this was his problem. No one should have to deal with it but him.

"... okay. But we're here if you need us."

It was an invitation to open up. He knew it was. Despite everything that was going on, Shoto had stepped up and offered to talk to anyone who wanted to get stuff off their chest. Most of the group declined, but he noticed that the ones he actually talked to the most, who now seemed much happier than they were at the start of their journey, were Ruby and Jaune. He wished he could do that. Talking about this would make it so much easier. Maybe it wouldn't solve everything, but it would be a start, at least.

But every time he tried, his chest and stomach filled with dread and terror. That by admitting everything was affecting him he'd be letting it win. He'd be letting that _thing_ win.

He could not let that happen. He _wouldn't_ let that happen.

A sharp but familiar sensation of pain in his forehead caught Izuku by minor surprise, causing him to bring his hand up to his temple to soothe it and distracting him from his internal monologue. He heard the others heading onwards without him, and he made no move to make himself known. Process had flared up once more, and he had to see through a hunch. It might've been nothing, but he just had to be sure.

As the others continued on, he opened his eyes and scanned the tree line, the world filtering into black and white as he searched with an intense gaze. Then, out of the corner of his vision, atop a scarcely notable plateau, he saw a dot of red. It wasn't like Ruby's, which was an almost neon combination of both her namesakes, but darker. Not quite crimson, but not quite red. He'd know that color anywhere.

Qrow.

But why was he following them? Was he the reason they hadn't run into any Grimm as of late? What-

A sudden migraine caused him to close his eyes from the suddenness, informing him that his time was up. Damnit. He opened his eyes to find the world as it had been before, awash with rich greens, browns, and greys as he once more found the same spot where he'd seen Qrow's Aura signature. If he was ever there, he certainly wasn't at the moment. Though the fact that the signature smoke of Grimm corpses was rising above that same spot gave credence to his second question's merit.

 _I still don't know why he's following us, though. I should probably let the group know we're being followed by a friend, at least._

"Greenie! Where are you?" he heard Yang call from further down the path.

"Over here! I'll catch up!" he called back before looking at that spot for a few silent seconds, then turning heel and jogging after the rest of the group, not wishing to worry them any more than he likely already had.

 _(Yang's POV)_

Yang felt immediate relief when she saw Izuku jogging back, apologizing for slowing them down before receiving reassurance from the rest of the group.

"I think we're being followed."

That phrase caused everyone's collective jovial mood to turn sour in almost an instant before Izuku quickly added, "No, no! I think they're friendly!"

"How can you be sure about that?" Jaune asked as Lancelot's helm silently materialized next to him.

"Well, I'm pretty sure they may have been killing nearby Grimm for a while now. It might be why we haven't run into that many of them lately," Izuku explained, though there was some hesitance in his voice.

"... if they're really killing Grimm, then we can assume they're probably a hunter," Yang chipped in. "But I also don't think we should let our guards down," she continued as she fought the urge to rub the bandana covering the scar on her right arm.

"Agreed," Izuku and Shoto said simultaneously before the latter continued, "We're only a couple of minutes away from the next town, so we'll be able to get some proper rest and maybe make a little Lien while we're there. Let's get moving."

As the others quickly got back on track, Yang noticed that Izuku was still walking at the rear of the group, his eyes flickering to the sides and even behind them before they found themselves again on the trail in front of them. Was he looking for the hunter he saw?

She slowed her pace to match that of Izuku's, not making herself known until she was right next to him. Were they not currently on a very important mission, this probably would've elicited more of a reaction out of her than a brief but noticeable heart-skip.

"Hey, Greenie. Whatcha doing back here?" she asked in her normal tone, though there were a few other questions that she really wanted to ask, among them being: how did he know they were being followed in the first place, should they be worried, how did he feel about her...

… _actually, scratch that last one. Scratch it out of sight and mind, this is no time to asking something like that!_

"I'm keeping an eye out," he answered simply.

"You've certainly got an **eye** for the finer details," she punned with a trickster smirk.

The dumb pun was enough to elicit a brief laugh from the green haired boy, the wind briefly kicking up and causing the hooded cape he wore to flap in the wind before dying down as quickly as it had come.

"Hey, Greenie? I kinda just noticed this, but it seems like you and Shoto are sharing the leader position," Yang said.

"Er... wait, you think I'm leading?" Izuku asked with genuine surprise.

"Yeah. I mean, Shoto's more the steady guy that keeps people calm, and you're the one who rallies everyone together when they need some guidance or clarification. You're like the ultimate one-two combo! Seriously, you guys have done great," Yang said with a shrug. "Not that Ruby's a bad leader or anything, but she differs to you guys a lot, so you must be doing something right."

"Erm... well..." Izuku let out as he gathered his words, finally managing to string something together. "Ruby and Shoto are honestly better leaders than I could ever hope to be. I mean, I can get people together when we're in the middle of a fight, but... I kinda have no idea how to lead outside of that specific situation. I mean, look at what Shoto did not even two minutes ago. He got everyone back on track and focused. He's a great leader. And Ruby's just got this energy and drive that I'm... honestly a little envious of. Me? I'm a good strategist, but I honestly think that they're better in terms of actual leadership," Izuku said with admiration in his tone, contrasted by the sad smile upon his lips.

"Don't discount yourself so easily, Greenie," Yang replied. "You'd be a great leader if the need ever arose for it. At least, that's my opinion."

"... thanks," Izuku answered.

There was a comfortable silence after that, something that the two had gotten used to over the past four months. Sure, they had conversations aplenty, and they were quite enjoyable, but there were other times when just being in each other's company was... enough.

They eventually made it to the next town over, Higanbana, which was a bit larger than the last town they'd been in, and was additionally just a few more days away from Athens, Pyrrha's hometown. It was also a bit more traditionally modern then most of the other towns they'd seen and visited during their time in Anima, which also meant they had decent Scroll signals. That, in turn, meant that they'd likely seen the Vytal Festival in its entirety.

… _craaaap._

And, just as Yang hoped they wouldn't, the second a little kid on the edge of the town spotted them, they were almost immediately swarmed by people with questions of all kinds, questions like 'why are you in Mistral?' 'How long do you plan on traveling?' That sort of thing. Trivial, but ultimately harmless.

And then, of course, there are those questions that, no matter your effort, you can never give a real answer to. At least, not one that satisfied a hunger for controversy.

"Hey! You!"

Yang slowly turned to the person addressing her, being a middle-aged blonde woman with a smug look in her eyes.

When the blonde brawler pointed to herself, praying that it wasn't the clarification that the woman was looking for, the woman in question then continued, "Yes, you. Are you the one who shattered that poor boy's kneecap?"

It felt like the docks all over again. When they'd first gotten there, there was a journalist there who'd taken himself way too seriously. She was too exhausted to really process it at the time, but he found them again and asked the same exact question the exact same way. She barely spoke for the rest of the day.

It wasn't even the question itself that was the problem. The tone when she asked it, the sick glee in her eyes when she saw the blonde brawler's face suddenly fall...

She couldn't be here. She had to get away, she had to get away, she had to-

A gentle hand on her shoulder shook her out of those thoughts before she was too far gone. Yang didn't have to turn around to know it was Izuku, or that his face was probably asking her something along the lines of 'are you alright?'

Yang quickly grabbed his hand and squeezed it tightly for reassurance, letting him know that she was fine, at least for the moment. She needed to get somewhere quiet. Where she could think of nothing at all.

"We should get going," Izuku said, knowing that she wasn't going to remain this calm for very much longer. Yang silently nodded in agreement, turning to follow the green haired boy before the woman again tried to get her attention.

"Hey! I'm talking to-"

"Mam, we've had a long journey, and I think we could all do with some rest," Shoto quickly explained, trying to get everyone away from the crowds as soon as possible.

"But-"

"Miss, I don't know why you're being this persistent with my sister, but please stop," Ruby spoke as she fixed the woman a tense stare, seemingly taking all of her willpower to not fire off Crescent Rose in order to shut her up. Fortunately, the former strategy worked, as the woman broke from the rose-themed reaper's gaze with a huff before turning on her heel and stomping away from them as quickly as she could.

It didn't take much longer for them to get to the inn and check into rooms. Yang hadn't let go of Izuku's hand until she got into her room, practically collapsing onto the bed inside with a loud flop and a heavy sigh, slowly curling up and clutching one of the pillows for some semblance of further comfort.

"Erm... do you want me to..." Izuku asked.

Yang tried to answer, but couldn't. It felt like there was something stuck in her throat, keeping her from uttering even a simple word to her friend as the silence went on for far too long. And then, she heard the slow click of Cyrus and Stratus against the hardwood floor of the inn before the door shut silently behind him.

Damnit. Why didn't she say something? Anything? Ask him to stay? Why?

She tried her best not to cry. She wasn't supposed to cry. But Oum, it was so hard not to.

 _(Izuku's POV)_

Izuku stood in the doorway for a few seconds before turning his gaze to the floor and silently closing the door behind him, giving Yang the privacy she sought. He barely made it a few steps before slumping against the wall, smacking the back of his head against it before sliding down and sitting against it with his knees close to his chest.

Damnit. Couldn't he do anything else? He felt so... urgh!

Izuku leaned forward as he reached behind his head and pulled the hood over his face, as if doing so would block out the frustration and the feeling of helplessness. That same feeling that made him want to spar with someone, anyone, if only to find something different to focus on than this.

The heavy click of combat boots on the hardwood floor alerted him to someone's presence. Slowly tilting his head upwards, he found Ruby looking down at him with concern in her eyes. Well, that's what he assumed. It was kinda hard to see her face with this hood covering most of his upper vision.

"Hey," she awkwardly greeted.

"... hey," he eventually replied.

"You okay?" the rose-themed reaper asked as she lowered herself down to Izuku's level, placing most of her weight on her heels and putting her knees almost against her chest.

"I'll be fine," he said. "Yang's in the room. She's pretty..."

"... yeah, I don't blame her," Ruby said as she rose up from her spot and made for Yang's door, suddenly stopping as her hand froze in mid-air, just inches away from the doorknob. She then turned back to Izuku, saying, "You know, you don't always have to be strong for us. It's more than alright to just... be yourself."

…

After a few more seconds of silence, Ruby sighed and opened the door to Yang's room, closing it behind her shortly thereafter. Izuku again smacked the back of his head against the wall in further frustration. He wanted to take her advice. Oum, he wanted to take it so badly.

 _But I can't. I'm just too damn scared of myself. I can't... I can't put you all in danger. I don't... I don't..._

And even still, his inner turmoil reached the ears of no one. No one but him.

 _(Ruby's POV)_

The silent click of the door marked Ruby's entrance into the room that her sister now resided in. They'd both probably be sharing it with Nora later. The blonde brawler in question was currently curled up on her bed, a pillow practically being crushed against her torso as she tried to find some form of comfort. Slowly, the rose-themed reaper made her way over to her sister's bed and sat on its edge, alerting her sister to her presence, but not starting a conversation. Not yet. Yang should be comfortable before they started talking; _if_ they started talking. If Ruby had to wait here all night, so be it.

Yang slowly lifted her head and let her lilac orbs find their way to her sister, who gave her a small smile and moved a bit further to her left, to give the blonde brawler some room to sit next to her if she wanted to. After what felt like ages, with nothing but the silence of the room tone and the rhythmic clicks from the overhead fan, Yang finally uncurled from her ball, pillow still clutched between her arms, and sat next to Ruby as the silence of the room continued.

.

..

…

"... sorry for worrying you all," she began to apologize. "It was stupid-"

"Yang. You're not in the wrong here," Ruby interrupted, determined to stop her from going down a path of self-loathing. "That woman had no right to act the way she did. It's not your fault."

"But... but..."

Ruby put her arm over her sister's shoulder, loosely, in case she felt the need to leave. After a few long seconds, the blonde brawler moved closer than she'd been before, her arms losing their tension as she finally began to relax.

"Hey, Yang?" Ruby asked. "You remember that one game we played when we were in middle school?"

"... which one?"

"Oh, you know, the one where I'd have to tag you with these?" Ruby said as she briefly closed her hand before opening it again, then revealing a few lightly shaded rose petals in her palm. Unlike the flower of their namesake, however, they were a much lighter shade of red, nearly pink in their hue, though not quite.

"Huh. How long has it been since we've actually used our quirks for anything like that?" Yang wondered as she aimlessly rubbed her fingers together, feeling the brief sparks between her fingers before stopping them, not wanting to cause a fire at this point in time. She'd done it for most of their campfires so far, and it had been a literal life saver. Especially on rainy nights.

"Long enough that I can get the drop on you!" Ruby said as she lightly tapped her sister on the left shoulder with the rose petals.

…

"... okay, it's on, sis," Yang said as she and Ruby rose from their places on the beds, placing their weapons to the side as they readied themselves for Quirk Tag. It was a simple and rather silly game: essentially tag with quirks only, but it was fun nonetheless. Besides, they could use the distraction.

"Guess I'm 'it,'" Yang stated, knowing how the rules of the game worked. "You ready, sis? I still remember how this went down the last time."

"Of course I am! Let's get ready to rumble!" Ruby exclaimed as she leapt out the window of their room, Yang quickly chasing after her as their game continued for far longer than either of them had anticipated. And neither of them cared a bit.

 _(twenty minutes later, 3:47 pm, the same inn, Izuku's POV)_

Izuku had long since gotten himself out of his proverbial relapse one he saw that Yang was indeed starting to feel better, at least for the moment. He wanted to talk to her, sure, but she both deserved and needed some time with her sister. Even if it was to just play a silly game of modified tag.

 _A game that you can't play._

Izuku quashed that thought as soon as it had appeared. They both needed this. It had been a long time since they'd genuinely done something fun, let alone together, and it was a nice change of pace regardless.

"You thinking about joining them?"

Izuku turned slightly to find Jaune standing next to him with Crocea Mors still at his hip, responding, "Nah. I think I'd just weigh it down."

"Well, whatever you're alright with," Jaune said as he took the seat to Izuku's left. "Hey, I noticed you were kinda down earlier. You okay?"

"... getting there," Izuku answered. He understood Jaune's concern, but the frequency of this particular question was getting a bit annoying. Just a bit.

Jaune didn't ask anything after that, since he'd been asked the same question at a similar frequency when he was feeling particularly down or depressed. It seemed that his talking and training with Shoto was helping him out in more ways than one, though none of their group would ever claim to be therapists.

"So, you feel like sparring? I don't think we've ever really done that, and now that we have so much to work with..." Jaune trailed off with a smile on his face. Izuku couldn't help but reflect it with one of his own.

"Gladly!" Izuku said as he bounced from his seat to his feet. "Got a spot in mind?"

"Yeah," Jaune responded as he too rose to his feet. "There's a glade over by the eastern part of town. It's seemed pretty empty, so we should be able to practice relatively undisturbed."

After five minutes of idle walk and excited conversation, they made their way over to the luscious green glade that Jaune had previously spoken of. It was like something out of a fairy tale, honestly. The grass was one of the richest green hues he'd ever seen, and the trees surrounding them were so high they almost looked like pillars, bearing the weight of the sky upon their wide trunks and heavy branches.

"This place is beautiful," Izuku said as his eyes widened in childlike awe, the excitement he felt only further heightening when a sudden flow of wind came through the glade, causing the leaves and grass to both sway in harmonious movement.

"Yeah. Who knows? Maybe we'll be able to eat out here later. Not that inns are bad or anything, but I think the others would like this place too. It's certainly more scenic than other placed we've holed up in," Jaune said with a similar look on his face.

It was also at that moment that Lancelot chose to appear with his helmet in tow. _**"Not that I wish to interrupt your collective awe, but I do believe you two have a spar scheduled?"**_

It was also at that moment that the two were brought back to reality, drawing their metaphorical lines in the sand as they went to opposite sides of the glade and drew their respective weapons, Crocea Mors' new look catching the slightest glint of the sun as its wielder prepared to activate its dust chamber, while Tempest was freed of its position on Izuku's back with a quick flourish of sword strokes before he shifted into the stance that he'd been drilled into by Qrow.

"You ready?" Jaune asked.

"Whenever you are," Izuku responded.

A single solitary beat passed between them, taking so long to pass, yet leaving as quickly as it came.

Then, simultaneously, they sprung forwards, and clashed. As blade met blade, a ring of force echoed outwards, causing the grass to sway in tune before they separated and clashed once more.

A harmonious song of steel echoed through the treetops and giving the combatants something to almost dance to. Jaune then broke the pattern by blocking with his shield, letting Izuku's blow slid down its length before he made a swing at the green haired inheritor's shoulder as Crocea Mors' blade came alive with lightning dust. However, Izuku expected this, flipping Tempest into a backhand grip and pivoting as quickly as he could, his legs screaming with effort as their blades met once more for a prolonged clash.

"Almost got you," Jaune taunted with a smirk playing at his lips, lightning dust giving a vibrant hum to his blade as the standoff held.

"You've gotta learn new tricks, Jaune. The same thing doesn't often work twice," Izuku retorted in equal measure, though it was all in good fun.

"Oh, but I have," Jaune said as he pressed forward, letting one of Lancelot's gauntlets materialize and nearly catch Izuku across the face, breaking the clash and allowing him to throw a line of electricity towards his opponent, which he luckily dodged, only for the bolt to be caught instead by a nearby tree trunk.

"Watch the trees!" Izuku chided as his cloak flapped in the draft he'd briefly made, settling behind him not a second later.

"In my own defense, you were right in front of it, like, a second ago," Jaune gestured from Izuku to the marked tree with his sword.

Izuku simply shrugged in response before rushing forth and stabbing Tempest into the ground, using the newfound leverage to assist himself in jumping at least fifteen feet into the air as Jaune summoned Lancelot's full torso, swiping at the green-cloaked blur as shotgun shots echoed from beneath his feet, letting him dodge that swipe and effectively used the same projection as a launch point from which he could survey Jaune, with the perfect angle for a dive attack.

" _ **Why does it feel as though I'm used as a literal stepping stone most of the time?"**_ Lancelot wondered to himself aloud as Izuku made his move, launching himself with furious speed down to where Jaune was as he called out to Tempest, the blade humming in response before taking itself out of the ground and quickly sped back to its wielder's hand, being caught mid-fall as Izuku then spun himself, effectively putting the pommel of Tempest under Stratus' barrel and firing it, causing the blade to bury itself halfway deep in the dirt where Jaune once stood, recognizing the attack in time to just barely avoid it.

"Oh Oum, that was-" Jaune tried to say before he was suddenly interrupted by a kick to the stomach, and, though his Aura had dulled the blow significantly, it was still enough to knock the wind out of him.

However, this didn't mean he didn't counterattack. On the contrary, he managed to give Izuku two strikes with Corcea Mors that, with the addition to the lightning dust that still ran through the blade, effectively brought them down to the same level of Aura. At least, he hoped so.

They now stood twenty feet apart from each other, eyes locked as the faintest drops of sweat started to form on their foreheads. How long had it been? Maybe three minutes? They were barely even winded, despite their efforts. Well, Jaune had to briefly catch his breath, but otherwise, they were nowhere near done.

The silence between them was suddenly broken as Jaune slammed his shield into the ground, cutting off the flow of dust to his sword as he sheathed it within the shield, and Lancelot came to life. Ghostly pieces of armor materialized out of thin air, stacking themselves higher and higher until, finally, Lancelot was revealed in all his glory, standing nearly half the height of the trees that surrounded them with a long, thick, misty white blade of such scale that only one of his size and strength could even hope to wield it.

Izuku let his lips upturn just the slightest bit as he began the transformation sequence for Tempest, the blade curling into a crescent as Lancelot swung his blade downward in a wide arc, causing the green haired inheritor to leap from the ground to avoid the attack. At the same time, Tempest's handle finished fully extending, causing Izuku to slid his grip down to the end and giving the blade a heavy overhead swing and threw it towards the ghostly knight, who managed to bring his sword back up in time to block the attack.

However, Izuku had already planned for this possibility, quickly flipping his body mid-air and launching himself with Cyrus and Stratus straight towards the meeting edges, grabbing Tempest's handle once more as he used the momentum of his redirection to hook himself around the massive sword and launch himself upwards once more, a hollow metal drag echoing through the glade as Izuku rose to such heights that he could almost see the tops of the trees. For just a brief moment, he let himself be encapsulated in a moment of sheer awe.

But it was brief nonetheless, and Izuku spun Tempest into a position behind him and readied himself for his planned attack. Lancelot, rather suddenly, shifted out of Paladin mode while Jaune took his place on the ground, reaching for Crocea Mors' sheathed form at his left hip, preparing for a quick-draw strike.

The clash was inevitable, Izuku spinning with a wild momentum about as he plummeted towards the blonde knight as he gathered his strength for this final clash.

For the briefest of moments, Izuku's mind went elsewhere. To a building filled with flame and smoke, the smell of ash overpowering his senses as, at the center of it all, stood a man outlined in charcoal black and burning crimson, his blade sheathed at his side as his hand deftly gripped at the hilt. The sound of blade against sheath was hollow, echoing through his mind more times than he could even begin to count in less than a split second.

It was this single slip-up, this single moment, not even lasting half a second, that caused him to cross his threshold, rocketing forwards at a speed that he had achieved during times of desperation, and, barely half an inch away from Jaune's neck, halted as he recognized his friend, who, despite the fact that he might've just barely avoided death, only had concern for his friend as his hands let go of their grip on his weapon.

Izuku dropped Tempest almost instantly, taking in deep gulps of air as he stumbled backward and eventually fell to the ground. His chest rose and fell at a rapid rate, closing his eyes as he tried to calm down. Stay calm. Stay calm. Stay...

 _Can't stay calm, can't stay calm, everything's going too fast, I can't-_

"-zuku?"

Jaune's voice eventually broke through the haze, causing him to flinch back in surprise as Jaune stood over him, offering him a hand up while Lancelot took the form of his helmet next to him.

"Can you stand?"

 _I'm... I'm so sorry..._

But as he opened his mouth to form the words, an invisible lump of air got stuck in his throat. So, after a few awkward seconds of silence, Izuku simply nodded as he accepted the blonde's help up and was pulled to his feet.

"Hey, Izuku?"

The green haired inheritor in question stayed silent as he took a few shaky steps towards Tempest, plucking the weapon from the ground with a slow lift of his own hand, as though he were dragging the weapon out of sap despite the lack of resistance. A twist of the pommel shifted Tempest back into its blade form, allowing him to snap it to his back even as the weapon hummed in concern of its wielder's wellbeing.

Without a sound he walked out of the glade alone, leaving Jaune behind him as he heard the semi-distant sound of a tree tumbling from its stump to the ground with a loud thunk. Izuku didn't need to look to know that that was his fault.

 _A drop in a bucket full of fuckups._

 _(a few hours later, near the inn, Izuku's POV)_

Izuku hardly spoke when dinner passed by with the setting sun. Mainly because there was no one to talk to. He'd eaten earlier than the others did, and made himself scarce afterward. It wasn't that he didn't want to talk to them. There was an urge to tell them anything, everything, what had been happening to him, what he was dealing with, what he'd learned, just to calm this chaotic swirl of thoughts that was his mind.

 _And then I'd be putting them in even more danger than they're already in. Damnit._

Izuku felt the slightest urge to slap himself, if only to receive some form of distraction, but he did not, instead allowing the trickling droplets of rain to roll off of his hood and find their way to the ground. He brought his plated forearms around himself, rubbing his biceps to generate some warmth as the chill of what would surely soon be a downpour began to rear its ugly head.

It was also in that moment that he gazed through the window of the building standing across from the inn, which was, coincidentally, the second largest building in the town: the bar. It was made from dark mahogany wood, and framed in such a way that it could blend into almost any aesthetic, with two stories and a classic saloon door with windows evenly spaced on either side of it. To put it simply: it was a bar.

It was not the bar itself, however, that caught Izuku's attention. Rather, it was one of the people he saw through the window. He was sitting at one of the tables that was closest to the bar, yet had a clear view of the inn through the window, and, as was common for the man at that point, he had a glassful of whiskey clasped in his left hand. The combed back, feather-like hair, the pale skin, the cape, and the unique shade of red in his eyes gave Izuku all he needed to know. This time, he was certain it was Qrow.

Fortunate timing for him, seeing as the weather was starting to pick up steam and the gradual rainfall was starting to get heavier, to the point that it was starting to soak through his cloak. So, he quickly made for the aforementioned building, Cyrus and Stratus making wet echoes against the cobbled path as he got to the door, pushing through it with an ominous creak that drew the attention of everyone sitting within it.

At least that's what he thought would happen. Instead, people just gave him a brief glance and went back to their business, which either involved conversing with one another at varying volumes or drinking themselves into oblivion. That, in combination with the fact that Izuku had his hood over his head and the rain had darkened the shade of green in his cloak, were probably the main reasons he wasn't immediately recognized by everyone in the bar and swarmed for questions. Again.

Actually, one of the latter group of patrons was actually at the bar itself, her head slumped forwards with a mugful of brandless, golden alcohol clutched in her hand as she spoke in slurred speech to the current bartender, who looked at her with both concern and pity. This appeared to be the same blonde woman who had tried borderline interrogating Yang only a few hours earlier.

 _Everyone has a story, no matter how boring, adventurous, or tragic. You might never hear it told, but that never means it doesn't matter. Isn't that right, Qrow?_

Izuku thought that as his gaze shifted to the man in question, who, after a second of seeming contemplation, gestured for him to come over and sit, which Izuku did as quickly, and silently, as he could.

"You've got good eyes, kid. Getting the hang of the details?" Qrow said in recognition, taking a sip from the glass in his hand before putting it back on the table with a silent clink.

"Well, I think I have a bit of a ways to go. I'm getting there though," Izuku responded in kind.

"Good. You're probably gonna need that skill in the long run," Qrow said, both knowing exactly what was being left unsaid.

.

..

...

"... so? You gonna ask?" Qrow said as he folded his hands over each other, putting them on the table the balance himself.

"... it's not what I wanted to start off with," Izuku admitted.

"That's fair, but we should probably get the awkward stuff out of the way now. So, I've been tailing your group for the past two weeks or so. I was actually on the way back from a hunt when I first saw you guys," Qrow answered. "I didn't make myself known because... well, how do you think Ruby and Yang would've reacted to seeing me?"

"You mean besides immediately trying to hug you into submission?" Izuku asked, knowing just how fond the two sisters were of their aforementioned uncle.

"I mean, there is that, but they'd eventually start thinking that I didn't think they'd be able to get to Mistral on their own. I certainly think they could, but that would welcome a lot of undue stress, and you guys already have enough of that just from trying to get to Athens.

"As for the whole Grimm clearing thing... I mean, Oum, you guys would barely get a moment's rest outside of towns and villages. So, I lightened the load a bit," Qrow explained with a shrug.

"A bit?" Izuku asked knowingly.

"... what can I say? Old habits die hard. Especially good ones," Qrow quickly responded. "Besides, I let you guys kill the Nevermore and the Geist. You'll have to get used to fights like that as hunters, because they'll be popping up _a lot_. I'm not kidding, it can get very tiring, so better to get used to it now. I also won't interfere directly unless any of you are in lethal danger, you have my word on that."

"So, you'll keep trailing us?"

"Yup. If you want to tell the others, that's your choice, but I'll still be keeping an eye on you all."

"Well, they already know that you're following us," Izuku answered.

"... they don't know it's actually me, do they?"

"No, I kept the whole identity thing vague until I knew for certain. Which I now do."

"You gonna tell them, then?"

"... I'm not sure. If they ask, I'm not gonna keep it from them, but this isn't exactly something you can just... bring up normally," Izuku said as he rubbed his forehead with his fingers in minor frustration.

"Yeah. Sorry about that. Erm... hey, now that I'm looking, you kinda-"

"Look like I haven't slept and I'm stressed out of my gourd?"

"... yeah. Rough few days?"

"You could say that."

…

A few seconds of silence passed before a young waitress came to their table and handed Qrow another glass, this time with a far more expensive looking liquid within it.

"Erm... I didn't-"

"The woman upstairs got it for you," the waitress said as she pointed in the aforementioned direction. "Red eyes. Kinda like yours. Said you wouldn't mind bottom shelf."

Qrow and Izuku turned their gazes in that direction, finding a mass of hair that was so similar to Yang's that the green haired inheritor was honestly a little surprised to not see that same hair structure be golden. That could only mean one person. The woman he'd rarely heard of, and the one who he'd been warned by Qrow to not trust.

"Thanks," Qrow answered as he turned back to the same drink. Izuku then tried, and failed, to try to block out the flirting that took place briefly before the waitress left, Qrow letting a sly smile slip out as she passed.

He then noticed the 'really?' look that Izuku was giving him and sheepishly scratched the back of his head in seeming shame. "What? I didn't say anything."

"Just... can we please get back to the situation at hand?"

Slowly, Qrow nodded, the two rising from their seats as the made their way up the stairs. There was a tension in the air that Izuku could almost touch, continuing as their footsteps echoed up the stairs and towards the woman waiting for them, alerting her to their presence.

As they turned the corner, Qrow stopped on the edge of the wooden railing, Izuku stopping just behind him as the red-eyed reaper had a stand-off with what he could almost call his counterpart. In terms of appearance, at least. Her outfit consisted of a shallow cut black and red dress with black shorts underneath, with series of beaded necklaces hanging loosely from her neck and a belt that wrapped around her waist and carried her weapon's sheath, though that was currently set to her side. Attached also was a long black object that was either fur or feathers, with a red and white bandana material hanging from behind her. Her forearms bore red armored gauntlets that protruded outwards along with solid black gloves. She wore black mid-thigh high boots with red splatter patterns, black heels, and red soles. Lastly, she had a long mane of hair and bright red eyes, only slightly darker than the shade that Yang's turned when she was either angry or had her semblance active. On the table in front of her was a distinct and recognizable design: a mask. It was bone white with red designs, with four separate eye-slits to gaze through. He wasn't entirely sure why it was designed that way, but he did know that it was strikingly intimidating, even though it wasn't currently being worn.

The woman herself looked strikingly similar to Yang, with the same facial structure, hairstyle, and height, were she not wearing heels. But there were significant differences. Her hair was jet black, even darker than Qrow's, her skin was almost as pale as Tomura's, and there were small but noticeable age lines beneath her eyes. There was also a portion of her hair done up in a ponytail slightly above the rest of it, ending in what resembled curved black feathers. Similar to Yang, she also had a slight cowlick protruding from the top of her hair.

Raven Branwen. Former member of Team STRQ, ex-ally of Ozpin and his council, current leader of the Branwen Bandit Tribe. Yang's mother.

 _And as far as Yang's concerned, she's not worthy of the title. At least, that's the impression I got._

After a few more seconds of tense silence, Raven finally greeted them, "Hello, little brother. I thought you weren't teaching anymore."

The hunter in question glanced back to Izuku before shrugged, turning back to his sister, and sitting across from her, setting his glass on the table before answering, "Officially, yeah. I was done with that profession as soon as Ruby passed her first year of combat school. Doesn't mean I can't take apprentices every now and then, Raven. Now, what the hell are you doing here?"

Izuku took this brief discourse to get closer. Not enough to be noticed, but enough to get a better look at Raven's weapon. The sheath had a rotary chamber filled with different types of Dust blades, reminiscent of the Dust vial chamber of Weiss' Mytenaster. While he currently couldn't see either the size or the shape of the blades in inside, he knew that they likely had the properties of every dust type under the sun, and if the length of the handle was anything to go by, the blades were likely very long.

Then, the conversation picked back up again. "Can't I catch up with family every now and then?"

"You can... but that's never been your style. And you wouldn't come to the middle of Mistral if you just wanted to 'catch up.' So cut the crap and answer my question," Qrow responded before sipping his drink and giving his sister a cocky but firm glare.

Raven held her ground, however, and asked, "Two things. Who's this kid you're with and why the hell do I feel _that_ semblance coming from him, and does she have _it_?"

And the tension within the room suddenly increased tenfold, Qrow's eyes narrowing on his sister as Izuku's hand twitched, almost beginning to reach for Tempest out of habit, before catching himself. Qrow gestured him forwards, the green haired inheritor grabbing a nearby chair and placing it between the two siblings, though he sat closer to Qrow than he did Raven.

"Before we say anything... I want to know something."

Raven gestured for him to speak his mind. Qrow's finger made its way around the edge of the glass in front of him as he played out a few more seconds of anticipating silence.

"... you know Yang lost her arm, right?"

And again, Izuku had to try his hardest not to show too much of a reaction. But, as the question sunk in, he could see the look of building anger on Raven's face as she answered, "That's not-"

"Don't bother finishing. I know you know. Don't take the high ground of 'family' around me when you carry on like your own daughter doesn't exist."

"I _saved_ her."

And that was where Izuku could no longer hold back. A combination of the stress that had been piling up, the stress of nearly going too far in his spar with Jaune, and the helplessness he felt at not being able to do anything to help Yang... and now this person was claiming to have _saved_ her?!

"Saved her? Saved her?!" Izuku interrupted the two's argument, his voice bubbling with anger so potent it was a miracle he wasn't yelling. _"When the fuck was that?!_ I didn't see you or anyone like you at Beacon. You weren't there when the Fall started. You didn't go there at any point when people were _dying in the streets._ You weren't there when Yang _lost her fucking arm_ and _**nearly died**_. And you weren't there afterward, when all was said and done, when she could've used a real mother the most. You didn't save her. You did nothing."

.

..

…

The silence went on for several, aching seconds, long enough that Izuku could hear a candle or two fizzle out in the background. But he didn't care. This woman could hold one of her swords to his throat, and his answer wouldn't change a bit.

"... who in all the hells that might exist are you?" Raven asked, beginning to reach for her own weapon ever so slightly.

Izuku sighed as he grabbed the hood of his cloak and pulled it from his head, letting his partially wet, dark green locks flow freely as he brought his gaze back up to Raven's, who, after a few seconds of waiting, widened her eyes in recognition.

"... well... that answers one question," Raven said as she put her hand on her face, rubbing it to rid herself of what seemed to be a headache.

"... that's it?" Qrow asked in surprise. Izuku would've joined him in that surprise, but frankly, this woman wasn't worth the effort.

"I don't think I need to ask his name. He's clearly Hisashi's kid," Raven answered. "Oum, this was not how I wanted this conversation to go..."

"Tough shit, you snake-tongued bitch."

"Fuck off, you feather-haired asshole."

.

..

…

"... well, since you already asked so nicely earlier... no. She doesn't have it."

He knew little of the person they were referring to. He knew her name, Salem, and that she was a kind of queen for the Grimm, but that was really it. However, he didn't what the 'it' that they kept referring to was. Was it one of the relics that Qrow had mentioned in that fairy tale? Maybe. But he'd ask once this conversation was over.

"... you know, you-"

"I don't want to hear it, Qrow. I'm not stupid enough to think we're enough to defeat her. Not anymore," she cut her brother off, continuing, "And you're the one who left. The tribe raised us and you went and turned your back on them."

"... did the past few minutes just fly over your fucking head? Don't bring that up. They were killers and thieves. And as far as I know, nothing's changed that much."

"They were your-"

"Say 'family' one more time. I dare you. Because you have a very, very skewed perception of the word that anyone with half a brain could run into the ground," Qrow said as he held his gaze with his sister's, invisible sparks flying between them as the silence continued for an achingly long time.

"I lead now. And I will do whatever I must to ensure our tribe's survival."

"Yeah, I saw. So did Xione."

Izuku's fists suddenly clenched in anger. This person... she'd attacked that town? They were defenseless! Most of the people there were innocent! WHY?!

As though she had sensed his thoughts, she responded to Qrow, and simultaneously answered his unvoiced question. "... the strong live, the weak die. That's how the world works."

"... bullshit."

…

"... excuse me?" Raven said, her gaze returning to Izuku as he answered her declaration.

"You heard me. That is the flimsiest worldview I've ever heard. If it held true, I can guarantee I wouldn't be sitting here right now. I had to work myself half to death to get where I am, and hearing you and your blatant Group A, Group B bullshit is-"

"Izuku! Calm down."

It was at his mentor's voice that he suddenly realized that he was no longer sitting, rising to meet Raven's height with clenched fists, ready for a fight. Silently swearing under his breath, Izuku let himself sit back down, glaring at Raven with no less hostility than before. And still, she almost asked another question, likely one of the ones she'd asked about earlier.

"How did-"

"Raven. You should leave," Qrow interrupted with an eerie calm that froze Izuku to his seat.

.

..

...

Raven then sighed as she reached for her mask, saying, "If you don't know where the relic is, and you won't answer my questions, then we have nothing left to talk about."

Qrow gave his sister a sterner glare for several seconds before breaking it, saying, "Yeah. Now leave before this turns into a fight," as he turned his attention back to his drink.

Then, with a swoop of her blade, a portal opened, and with a rhythmic click of her boots, she stepped through it, causing it to disappear only a second afterward.

It was also at this time that Izuku let out a breath he didn't realize was being held, putting his forehead against the wood of the table as he said, "I fucked up, didn't I?"

"I mean... sort of, but not really. She had it coming, and you seem like you've had... well, one of 'those' days. Honestly, it probably would've ended like that even if I left you downstairs," Qrow said as he tried to reassure his student that this wasn't entirely his fault.

"She's just... urgh! She's so infuriating! It's almost unfathomable to think that she's related to people like you and Yang!"

.

..

…

"... oh Oum, Yang. What do I tell Yang?"

"I really hate saying this, but... you can't tell her. Not yet. The less people know about the secrets this world keeps, the safer they'll be. And, unfortunately, that includes your group."

"But their latest threat is in Mistral. We're _going_ to Mistral!"

"And we'll fill them in on what we're up against once we're all there in one piece and there aren't as many people around to potentially listen in. Look, I want to tell them too. Honestly, there have been times where I want to spill everything to someone close because of the stress and the guilt. But for now, at least, they're better off not knowing. You've all got enough to worry about as it is.

"Try to get some rest kid. You're gonna need it," Qrow said with a firm pat to Izuku's shoulder as he rose from his chair walked back downstairs, the click of his shoes disappearing into the murmurs and aimless noise of the people downstairs.

Eventually, he didn't know how much time had passed, Izuku too stood and walked down the stairs, again glancing at the blonde woman, who was currently asleep with the slightest hints of tear stains lining her cheeks. A pang of sympathy rang out for the woman before the green haired inheritor turned and left the building entirely, the rain heavy enough to fill his hair within only a few short seconds. It was cold. Almost soothing, in a strange way.

Izuku then slowly breathed in and out as he looked up towards the sky, closing his eyes as the rest of his face caught the myriad of droplets the fell from unseen clouds overhead. A moment of peace and calm.

But it was a moment. Nothing more, nothing less.

 **A/N: Okay, this was much longer than I originally thought it'd be, and it may have some problems because of that. Seriously, I wrote out 3,000 words in a day because I honestly didn't think it would be this long. Let me know if there's anything I should change or clarify!**

 **Also, special thanks to Shiakusa for giving me the idea of how Yang views Raven! You're awesome dude! Hope to see you around! And now:**

 **Review Responses:**

 **Odin's Eye: Yeah. He might learn it in some capacity, but this is Bakugo we're talking about. And oh yes, let's hope they do.**

 **Kaiser Dragon: Oh yes, they both will. And while I certainly think that Jacque is worse than Endeavor... I mean, let's be honest, Enji isn't exactly 'father of the year' material by any means.**

 **Midgardsormr Jr: There will be fire alright. Let's see who lights it...**

 **Rune Dragon432: Yep! Well, I'd say Bakugo is less living fireworks than he is a living bomb with an occasionally very short fuse.**

 **Mecha Manda: Not quite yet, but that's not to say he won't be... well, Bakugo.**

 **Gorosaurus Fan: Patience and meditation in extreme temperatures, at least to start with. And considering just who we're talking about this isn't gonna be easy.**

 **King Ceasar Jr: One day, but that day is not today.**

 **Enku: That it most certainly is. It's part of his arc, but it's not necessarily going to be the end of it. It'll be the beginning. And that's a damn good quote. Makes me want to go and do something awesome!**

 **God-King Ghidora: I mean, you'll have to wait till next time for that. And I do have some very funny interactions planned for next time, considering a large part of this chapter was rather... bleak.**

 **Thunder Dragon: Not quite yet, though I'm sure he'd do it given the chance.**

 **Next Chapter: Mar. 22** **nd**

 **Seeya in the next one!**


	48. Pull Punch

**A/N: Geez. I actually have nothing to say for this one. Erm... quippy joke?**

…

 **Holding for laugh.**

 **.**

 **..**

…

… **okay. I get it. I know what you're all here for. Enjoy, the chapter!**

 **Disclaimer: I do not own RWBY or My Hero Academia. They belong to Monty Oum, Kohei Horikoshi, and their respective publishing companies. Please support the official releases.**

 **I do not own the cover image.**

Chapter 48: Pull Punch

Sun lurched awake as he gripped at his chest protectively, his labored breaths turning to deep gulps of air as he remembered just where he was. He was on a ship to Menagerie. It was... dawn. He wasn't about to-

Sun shook his head as he rose from the bed he'd been provided, moving to the mirror on the wall as he further awakened. Balancing himself with a hand on either side of the mirror, he stared into the eyes of the reflection. Alright. This was it. This was where he'd meet his "destiny." Where he'd atone for failing them.

 _Urgh. Sensei, why do you always have to be so damn cryptic with these things?_

But he quickly shook those thoughts away with a few quick turns of his neck. "Happy face, Sun," he told himself. "Can't let the others down."

And his face shifted into a mixture of feelings. One of genuine happiness, built on a foundation of guilt and self-loathing. But the latter two didn't show. This was his problem. His and no one else's. His pain and no one else's.

That was how it had to stay. The others needed a friend, so he'd be the friend they could rely on. The friend that _they_ had needed.

The friend who would've been there to save them no matter what.

 _(one hour later, the same ship, Bakugo's POV)_

The ship pulling into port was punctuated with the sound of the ships horn briefly cutting across the silence before, as though prompted, a church bell rang out three times over twelve long seconds. Bakugo sighed to himself as he lifted himself from the floor of his room and gave himself a brief once-over in the mirror.

 _Geez. Still can't believe I'm finally here. Thought I was gonna go stir-crazy from the trip._

He then glanced to the bed in the admittedly barebones room, which held the only bag that he'd packed for this trip: a black, rectangular suitcase with a crimson direwolf head emblazoned across it. The blonde picked up said suitcase and examined it closely, knowing just what this symbol meant for him and people like him. At least, now he did.

A knock then came from the door of his room, causing him to roll his eyes and sigh heavily as he was brought out of his contemplative mindset, his arms returning to his sides as he quickly opened his door.

"You good?" Sun asked with his hands behind his head, while Neo stood in front of him with her arms... wait...

"... what's with the costume change, Minty?"

Bakugo was, of course, referring to Neo's hair, which, while still in the same style, had been changed to black; her eyes, which were now the same green as when he'd first met her; and the addition of ram horns, sprouting from her forehead and curling inward, then downwards, lining her jaw.

Neo gave a bit of a pout as she typed, _"What? Not impressed?"_ as Bakugo left the room and shut the door behind him, falling into step with his other two companions as they made their way above deck.

"No, that's not the point. You know there are humans on Menagerie, right?"

" _Those same humans are also few and far between. This disguise won't freak people out."_

"That's fair, but why'd you change the hair and eyes? Wouldn't the horns be enough? Actually, how would you even be able to pull this off without getting outed by someone with really good senses?"

Sun gestured to Bakugo with a grandiose wave, indicating that he'd probably asked her a similar question not long earlier. It was also around this point in the conversation that they'd finally made their way above deck, the sky just as clear as it had been the day before, with brief spots of puffy white clouds to give it some variety. Man, this place was hot. Perfect for his heat meditation.

Neo then sighed to herself as she continued, _"I'm pretty sure information usually comes secondhand around Menagerie, but I don't want to take any chances. I know that me and my uncle made the national news at least once or twice in the last few years, and I'd rather lie low while I'm here."_

"You got everything?" Blake asked them, leaning against the railing of the ship as she did so. Her eyes flickered to Neo for a few moments. "... I don't even want to ask about the horns."

"All set!" Sun said with his signature smile and an almost instinctual thumbs up while Neo pouted in mock-disappointment, putting her hands, which held her grey suitcase, which the blonde direwolf was almost sure had pink of some sort on the interior, behind her to emphasize this. Bakugo simply raised the hand that held his luggage, and Blake nodded to herself as she said, "Alright. I guess I'll start showing you around."

Blake then led the three off of the ship and down to the port of the faunus Kingdom, Menagerie. The first thing that Bakugo thought was that the place was simply stunning. The architecture that surrounded them, while simple, was quite pleasing to the eye, and the way that it seemed to come from a place of respect for the nature around it made it all the more beautiful. The second thought that he had was that it was, again, hot. Really damn hot. It wasn't even summer yet, and he was already guessing that most people stayed indoors if they couldn't take the heat.

And the third and most overpowering thought that he had was that it was crowded, to the point that he could barely see the street in front of him. Faunus of all kinds were going about their business, either bartering with the vendors or trying to get to somewhere else in particular, and a few people were trying to get the body of a palm tree to Oum knew where. In short: it was chaotic, loud, and absolutely brimming with life.

Given how his mother had spoken about this Pull Punch guy, he probably loved it here. Or hated it. Or both. Probably both.

"Okay, everyone hold hands," Blake said as she held her own out for Sun to grab.

"Erm... not that I mind, but... why exactly?" Sun asked.

"Do you want to get separated by moving through a crowd like this is an adventure novel?" Blake asked in turn.

"Fair enough," Sun said as he gripped her hand and held his other out for Bakugo to grab onto. Rolling his eyes, the blonde direwolf complied with their plan of action, holding his free hand out for Neo to grab. Once they knew everyone was secure, Blake led their way through the crowded street, bodies bumping against them with half murmured apologies all the while.

By the time they managed to push through it all, Bakugo actually had to stop to catch his breath for a quick moment. How long had they been in that crowd? A few moments? A minute? Either way, it was way too long, and he did not want to experience that again anytime soon.

"Is it always so damn crowded here?" Sun asked voicing the question that was probably on everyone's minds.

"Unfortunately, yes, it is," Blake said with a heavy sigh, continuing to lead their walk as she continued, "When you're given an island that's two-thirds desert, it would almost certainly be this crowded. And it isn't like the desert in Vacuo. The Grimm and wildlife on that part of the island are a lot larger and way more dangerous than most of what you find there."

"I wouldn't be so sure about that. There's always the occasional Molduga," Sun said, shuddering as he did so.

"Wait, you guys have those too?!" Blake exclaimed.

"Yeah, but they're few and far between, and even when they do show up, they get hunted down pretty quickly because of 'the glory.' Some nomad tribes make a whole festival out of it. If you kill one, you're given the title 'Sand Dragon.' At least, that's what I've heard. I could be wrong," Sun explained with a shrug.

"... I thought Moldugas were a myth," Bakugo admitted, Neo giving a few sharp nods behind him in agreement.

"Trust me, they're anything but myths," Sun and Blake synched, causing them to briefly look startled for a moment before moving on.

Neo briefly bounced and waved to get everyone's attention before typing out, _"Then why aren't there more stories about these kinds of Grimm? Something like that would definitely make the news."_

"Not really. Scroll signals out in Vacuo were pretty spotty even before Beacon, and the relay tower in the central city is the only way to reliably communicate with... well, anyone, so news can get pretty choppy sometimes," Sun said.

"Okay... but wouldn't a place like this have a decent relay tower?" Bakugo asked.

As though it were the most obvious thing in the world, the cat faunus gave her eyes a wide roll as she pointed to the group's left, drawing their attention to the barely seen, thin pike of metal that just barely cleared the trees and the rooftops. It was likely their relay tower.

"... that's it?" Bakugo asked in surprise.

"Yeah. Information usually comes secondhand from passing ships and diplomats. The latter of which are usually more reliable, but especially rare for this place," Blake answered.

"So, now that that's out of the way... why are you guys here? If you're here to find something specific, maybe I could point you in the right direction," Blake offered.

"Well... I don't suppose there's an old temple styled with a bunch of jade monkeys, is there?" Sun asked with a straight face.

"Not to my knowledge. Why?" Blake responded.

"Oh, just wondering... well, guess I'm sticking with you guys, then. Maybe it's out in that desert or something," the blonde monkey faunus said, muttering the last part under his breath.

"I can't tell whether or not that was a joke, Gunchucks," Bakugo said.

"I'll leave that up to you guys," he said with a cryptic wink, though the blonde direwolf had a hunch that he wasn't telling them everything. The fact that the question was so specific yet also so vague was something that Bakugo took note of.

"How about you, Bakugo?" Blake asked, turning the group's attention to him. "I think I should've asked this a day ago, but what exactly was that, at the end of the fight? You looked... kinda like a Grimm."

.

..

...

… _shiiiiiit._

The blonde direwolf sighed heavily before he answered her. "It's... a really, _really_ long story that I don't want to get into right now. I'm here to find some guy that my mom recommended I study under. She didn't give his actual name, though. Always called him Pull Punch. Must've annoyed the hell out of him, cause she usually laughed after she said it," he explained.

"Wait... did you say Pull Punch?" Blake asked.

"Yeah. Why? You know something about him?" the blonde direwolf asked.

"Well... not exactly, but I did hear my dad mention the name once or twice, when I was a lot younger. Maybe he knows something about them?" she responded with her hand on her chin.

"It's a start," Bakugo said.

"Alright. Guess we're... going to my parents' house..." Blake said before she sighed heavily, as though she were dreading this encounter. The cat faunus gave Neo a passing glance before she turned around and said, "Alright. Let's get going."

Neo seemed a bit disappointed that she wasn't included in the reason sharing, but made no move to make it known, and she joined the others as they made way for the biggest house in Kuo Kuana, the name of the town in which they now stood. It was at least three stories high, lavishly decorated in the style of Anima with some tints of the island architecture surrounding it, and a smooth stone stairway that led up to two massive rather intimidating wooden doors, with old-school knockers on the front of each.

"You _live_ here?!" Sun exclaimed while Neo's eyes widened to the size of dinner plates, briefly taking the time to type out something on her scroll. _"You never told us you were a princess."_

Blake rolled her eyes at Neo's statement. "Not a princess. Just... daughter of the chieftain."

"Prin-ceeess," Bakugo said in a sing-song tone with a devilish smirk on his face, causing Blake to briefly glare at him before facing the double doors once again, a nervous look in her eyes the whole time.

"... well? What's up?" Sun asked.

"It's... the last time I saw my parents... I didn't exactly leave on good terms," Blake explained. Her breath was shaky, even as she tried to steady herself and gain some form of confidence, it seemed as though the anxiety simply wouldn't leave her.

A tap on her shoulder alerted her to Neo's presence, giving her a bit of a glare before the currently disguised girl shook her head, and typed, _"I don't know... anything about your relationship with your parents. But you're here now. If it's not gonna go smoothly, might as well get it out of the way now."_

"... I didn't expect you to be this optimistic. Or nice," Blake replied.

Neo simply shrugged, as if to say that she didn't either.

"Don't think this means you're off the hook. You still tried to kill me," Blake said with a single finger raised ever so slightly.

Neo moved her own back and forth, as if to say 'not you.' Well, Bakugo could get why Blake would think that. It would be a bit hard to take advice from someone who you'd previously fought against. He trusted her, though. Somewhat. He could count on her, and at the moment, that did count for something.

But, as Blake turned to the doors once again, there was a flash of jealousy in Neo's eyes for the briefest of moments. Before Bakugo had enough time to wonder why, Blake was already reaching for the knocker, and using it for the intended purpose, sending a loud, poignant, and ominous knock throughout the house.

"... okay, _that_ was intimidating as hell," Sun pointed out, causing Bakugo to turn and give him a 'no shit' look in response. And so, they waited. For five seconds. For ten.

And then, the door opened ever so slightly, letting them see the interior of the house for the first time, and a woman who looked to be Blake's mother. With black hair and yellow eyes, she shared several physical features with her daughter, although her ears were noticeably larger in size. Her hair was chin length, and she had three gold piercings on her cat ears - two on her right, and one on her left. She wore a black hakama and sandals with white tabi socks. Over her outfit, she wore a black shrug with a long right sleeve and a short-left sleeve, gold leaf trim adorning the opening on the front. She also wore long, black arm warmers that extend to her middle finger. The left warmer had a purple band tied around the top and a pair of gold bangles around the wrist. Around her waist was a black and gold sash that trailed behind her, with a gold flower-shaped buckle at the end.

Her eyes then widened as she recognized the person at the forefront of the group, bringing her arm up to her mouth as she uttered beneath her breath, "... Blake?"

…

"... hey... mom..." Blake said hesitantly, as though waiting for her mother to scorn her or yell or scream or do anything but approach her.

Instead, her mother rushed forwards and wrapped her arms tightly around Blake, causing the girl's eyes to widen in surprise and mild discomfort as she hugged the life out of her daughter.

"You're here... you're home... my baby girl is home..." the woman said with a shake to her voice, tears falling from her eyes as she somehow pulled Blake even closer. Bakugo decided that it would be best to let the two of them have their moment in relative privacy, so, as quietly as he could, he turned away from the two, though he was more than certain that Blake was hugging her mother back just as tightly now that she'd regained her bearings.

It was in doing this that Bakugo saw Neo staring down at the stone ground with her fist clenched behind her back. Why was she... oh. Okay, her relationship with her parent(s) was either super neglectful or she didn't remember them all that much. Considering the way she often acted around everyone, either was likely, but...

Wait, why was he even thinking about this stuff? If she wanted to tell him, she'd tell him.

 _That doesn't mean you can't be concerned._

His attention was then brought back to the door of the house, where the man who was presumably Blake's father stood in similar shock. He was a tall, muscular man with black hair, a thick beard, and yellow eyes. He wore an open dark violet coat with white fur trim, exposing his rather hairy chest. Over his beige pants was a matching sash that wrapped around his waist and was secured with a large, silver metal buckle. On the shoulder of his coat was a silver metal spaulder, which through a pair of curved strips across the chest attached as a clasp on the opposite front panel of the coat. The white toes of his black leather boots had a shape reminiscent of paws with claws at the tips. His physique was in general quite hairy, as what little could be seen of his bare arms and the backs of his wrists were shown to be covered in thick, black fur.

While Bakugo didn't want to interrupt the moment, especially seeing as the dad was now joining in on the three way hug, but alas, the heat was once again making itself a factor. An annoying one at that.

"*ahem*"

That turned all of their attention towards him as he continued, "As much as I hate to do this, we can't exactly stand around outside all day. So... yeah, we should probably talk."

.

..

…

"... Blake, who are they?" her father asked with a slightly suspicious tone.

"Oh! Erm... these are the friends I dragged in. Can we keep them?" Blake said with a shaking smile.

…

"Okay, that was one of the weirdest icebreakers I've ever heard, and that's coming from _me_ ," Sun said with a confused arch to his eyebrow.

"Yeah, it made more sense in my head," the cat faunus admitted. "Maybe I should work on the delivery?"

"That's not all you need to work on..." Bakugo whispered.

When Bakugo looked back to Blake's father, the man was giving him an analytical look, as though he were trying to place something that he recognized about the blonde direwolf. However, a warm smile soon replaced it, as he continued, "Ah! Where are my manners. My name is Ghira Belladonna, and this is my wife, Kali," he gestured to the elder of the two women, who gave them a cute little wave before he continued, "And you're quite right, we really should be getting inside. But might I ask your names?"

"I'm Sun," the blonde monkey answered with both a smile and a thumbs up.

The currently disguised thief then did the same, typing out, _"Name's Neapolitan, but most people just call me Neo."_

Ghira's eyes narrowed ever so slightly as Neo introduced herself. Crap. Did he already suspect her? Well, if he did, he didn't make it known, as he then turned to Bakugo with an expectant glint.

"... Katsuki Bakugo. I'm supposed to find a guy called Pull Punch, and Kitty here told me you knew 'em. So?" he asked, laying his intentions plain for all of them to see.

He did notice, however, that when he said the person's nickname, something seemed to cause Ghira actual, physical pain, causing him to grip at his chest as he leaned against one of the nearby support pillars as Kali, Blake, and everyone else present looked at him with concern.

"... no... no... NOOOOO! I THOUGHT I WAS FINALLY FREE OF THAT OUMDAMNED NICKNAME!" he said as he fell to his knees in anguish.

.

..

…

After several seconds of silence, Bakugo finally put all the pieces together. The last leader of the White Fang was named Ghira; his last name was never released publicly; a pacifist. Ghira was also Pull Punch, a pacifist. Who learned how to control his berserker side to...

"Pfft! Hah! Hahahahahahahahahahahahahaha!" the blonde direwolf exclaimed as he slowly doubled over with laughter! "I-h-it all makes sense now! Haha!"

"Not you too..." Ghira let out in seeming fear.

"... so... are we heading inside, or what?" Blake asked the others, Neo responding with, _"Just a bit longer. I want to watch the carnage."_

 _(ten minutes later, the Belladonna household, Bakugo's POV)_

After taking a few minutes to calm down, and not piss off Ghira any further (for a pacifist he had one hell of a temper), the six of them now sat at the main table of the Belladonna household. Well, the smaller one, at any rate. The actual main table was so large it was likely meant for very large events, and this event, while this may have been a momentous occasion for the family in question, was not one of them. Kali was currently sitting next to her daughter while Ghira sat at the 'head' of the table with a warm smile on his face, while Sun sat to the left of the dark-haired girl with Bakugo and Neo seated right next to them, directly across from Kali.

Everyone had a cup of steaming tea in front of them. It smelled exotic, yet simultaneously kind of like coffee. Bakugo would never claim to like tea, but this blend did prove to be rather soothing.

 _Huh. I never thought I'd use that word to describe... well anything, really._

Then, Kali began the conversation with, "We were horrified when we heard about what happened to Beacon. Vale was never perfect, far from it, but it didn't deserve what happened."

 _Understatement of the fuckin' century._

The three family members continued speaking as he and the others tried to look for a way to get a word in edgewise. They spoke about how worried they were about Blake, and that was the time that Sun thought it would be a good time to interject and reassure Blake's parents that they had nothing to worry about. It was also the moment that he chose to put his own foot in his mouth and imply certain... things, with very unaware innuendos.

"Erm..." Sun said as he realized what he just implied, trying to save himself as he explained, "I mean, she's one of the best fighter's I've... ever..."

As he suddenly realized there was no getting himself out of this particular situation, he instead picked up the tea in front of him and gave it a big sip. "... this is good tea."

When he then turned to Bakugo and Neo for assistance, the disguised girl was currently giving this a good and hearty silent laugh, actually falling onto the table for support while Bakugo just gave him a knowing smile, saying, "Oh no, by all means, keep digging that grave of yours. It's very entertaining."

"... I like him," Kali whispered to her daughter, suddenly causing Blake to turn a rather telling shade of pink as her head whipped back to face her mother as she chided her, "Mom!"

Ghira then regained their attention as he said, "Well... now that that's out of the way," he said with a warning glare to the blonde monkey faunus, "I must ask why the three of you are in Menagerie in the first place. If you're looking for a particular place, we might be able to help you find it."

" _Oum, he really is Blake's dad,"_ Neo typed out to Bakugo, causing him to chuckle as he responded, "Obviously. They have the same eyes."

" _Not what I meant."_

"Guess I should start," Sun said as Ghira gave him a semi-hostile glare, a silent warning to watch his words before the blonde monkey faunus continued, "So, I kinda came here to find an older temple that I was told about. They say a lot of monkey faunus went there for religious purposes before this place got abandoned about a century earlier."

Ghira then gained a contemplative look and answered, "There are a few places like that throughout the island, but most of them started fading before Menagerie was recolonized. And the ones that might remain are too far into the desert to safely travel to."

"How far?" he asked.

"About ten miles," Ghira said with a serious tone in his voice.

…

"Seriously? Just ten?" Sun said in surprise. "I thought it'd be harder to-"

"The Moldugas are also quite fond of the deeper sands out there."

.

..

…

"... uurrrrgh, you're right," Sun said as he buried his face in his hands.

"We'll continue this later?" Ghira asked.

"Yeah. There's gotta be a way to get past them, right?" Sun said with a bit of optimism, though it definitely felt somewhat forced.

"Let's hope. Now, on to you two," Ghira said as he turned to Bakugo and Neo, the latter snapping to attention when she realized the earlier conversation was over. "I understand that you have your own reasons for coming here. I believe I already know young Katsuki's reason."

"You already knew about the training plan?" Bakugo asked in surprise.

"No, but there only could've been one of two reasons that she sent you here. Seeing as she's not dead, you're definitely here for training. And to make my life hell again, if you're anything like her..." Ghira said with dread.

"... okay, that's it! I'm lost, and you two definitely know something we don't!" Blake said as Sun nodded with her, equally confused, and Neo just sat back and watched.

"It's... well, it's complicated. I'll try my best to explain it later. Now then-" Ghira said before he was interrupted by a hand from Neo, likely already knowing what he was about to ask, and then began to rapidly type something out on her scroll, taking a full ten seconds to finish. It read, _"I'm here to find whatever's left of a particular tribe. They were desert dwellers and hardcore Grimm hunters. I don't know their name, but all I really have besides that and some other vague information is this symbol."_

After Ghira had ample time to read it, he then examined the black, triple tomoe sigil that she'd managed to find. Actually, wasn't that sign on some of her clothes? Was there some kind of a personal connection or did she just really like the symbol?

"There were rumors of a tribe who was lost out in the Sea of Sands. Some say they're still roaming, hunting down most of the manageable Moldugas. Most believe they were either wiped out a long time ago or are a myth, and for good reason. The last time anyone remotely like that was seen here was almost thirty years ago, and those reports are shaky at best," Ghira explained.

Neo then gestured to him, and then pointed to her own head, probably asking him what he thought of it. The large man then answered, "I have seen evidence that they were around at some point, though I have never managed to learn an official title for the tribe, but whether or not they're still around is honestly up in the air. I assume you know their given title?"

Neo nodded, at which point it was Bakugo's turn to be confused. "Okay, what the hell are you guys talking about?"

Neo glanced at him for a moment before sighing and giving him a sympathetic smile, typing, _"To make a very long and very complicated story short, we're talking about a tribe most call the Sand Wraiths. And they might-"_

Bakugo never finished reading the sentence, however, as their long conversation was then interrupted by a sudden knock at the door.

"Dammit!" Ghira said as he pounded his fist on the table, though given his structure it was likely just a tap as far as he was concerned. "I forgot about the meeting."

"No need for that, dear. This was all rather sudden. Just reschedule it for a later time," Kali said as she comforted him. Apparently, Ghira took his job quite seriously, an attitude that was practically required to run a place like Menagerie. Ghira then thanked his wife and rose from the table, excusing himself before making his way to the entrance of the house once more.

"A meeting?" Blake asked as Kali poured herself another cup of tea.

"Oh, yes. Don't worry, things have gotten a bit more hectic now that they have more of a presence here," Kali answered as she blew over her steaming drink.

"... who?" Sun asked. Bakugo's eyes then widened at the possibility of _them_ being here. If they were, there was no guarantee that was going to be able to keep himself from-

As Kali finished her sip of tea, she glanced at all four of them and answered, "... the White Fang. Who else?"

 **CRACK!**

Bakugo's breathing suddenly sped up, his fist clenching the still tea-soaked shards of the clay used in the cup. His hand was shaking, and he could feel his eyes beginning to dilate, felt the red start seeping into his vision-

 _No. Breathe. Stay calm. Do not destroy anything else. I'm sure wouldn't appreciate having to replace more than the cup._

With those thoughts, while Bakugo was far from content, he managed to calm himself down. They were here, huh? Funny. Rumor had it they weren't allowed here. At least, their military sectors. He didn't doubt that they might have weapons, though. The White Fang was on par with a cult in terms of fanatics, after all.

All five of them then rushed to the front door, though Kali did so out of confusion and worry, and found Ghira speaking with a pair of brothers. Their clothing and overall appearance were practically identical: red hoods that functioned partially as cloaks, made of two pieces held together by yellow buttons and string. They also wore black tunics with two sections extending farther down than the rest at their fronts. Both the hoods and tunics had white trimming. They also wore detached white sleeves, bound at the mid-bicep and the wrists. Black gloves clung to their hands and were attached to their middle-fingers. Their white pants were pleated. They wore black open-toed sandals with fabric extending up to their knees to complete their outfits. Their skin was heavily tanned, and they each had small but piercing hazel eyes, something that unnerved Bakugo almost the instant he walked in their line of sight. However, that was where their similarities seemed to end, as seen by their difference in height. The one to the left was the taller of the two, being nearly as tall as Ghira himself, with a bushy grey dog tail hanging loosely from a modified hole in his robes, while the one on the right was almost shorter than Blake, and had a pair of long, orange ears that weren't quite canine but still gave off a similar impression.

In short: they looked like religious recruiters. The blonde Berserker already didn't trust them.

"Blake? Is something wrong?" Ghira asked as the group marched onward to the door with looks of both pure, unbridled rage, disappointment, or confusion.

"Ah. It is good to see you again, young Blake," the taller greeted with a slight bow, his brother mirroring the action as he then continued. "We were not aware you had returned to Menagerie."

"Were we informed we would have welcomed you personally," the shorter added.

"... dad, what are Corsac and Fennec doing here?" Blake asked as Bakugo opened and closed his hands in anticipation of a brawl, Sun's hand reaching ever so slightly for his gunchucks just in case. Neo, while not as tense as the others, narrowed her eyes and her stance, her finger hovering just above Melodic Cudgel's trigger.

"Blake, just because some of the Fang have become more militant doesn't mean there aren't good people with the aim of peace among them," Ghira explained.

"That is true. We were rather shocked to learn of your departure, but we understand why you may not wish to support our new... methods any longer," Fennec further explained.

"Methods? METHODS?!" Bakugo asked with literal smoking anger to his tone. "We saw people from the Fang killing people firsthand in Vale! Don't feed us that 'methods differ' bullshit, you ignorant fuck!"

"... what is he talking about?" Ghira asked as his own gaze narrowed, Kali suddenly taking her own defensive stance as the tension between the parties continued to grow.

"... wait, are you kidding? How the hell do you guys not know?!" Sun asked with genuine surprise.

Ghira's face told them that he did not, and wanted answers as soon as he could get them. Blake then took over with a hesitant shake in her voice, explaining, "The White Fang was there during the Fall of Beacon. They were hunting down students. They released Grimm into the school."

"That's not even mentioning everything else," Bakugo began, his voice steadier than it had been, though his rage had yet to be quelled. "A lot of people we know got hurt. Some of them might not be able to fucking walk anymore. You took out half a fucking air fleet! That's not freedom fighting, that's just plain terrorism!"

Sun gave a sigh before he began his own tirade, saying, "That wasn't even the first time you guys had shot up Vale. Smuggling stolen Dust, stealing the Dust in the first place, various attacks on normal fucking people-"

"If we could have a chance to explain," Corsac said with a firm tone, stopping everyone in their rage-induced tracks, including Neo, who'd been slowly typing something out before stopping as he continued, "This is exactly what we came here to speak with the Cheiftan about."

Bakugo personally wanted to call bullshit and shove this guy's words back down his throat, literally if he had the means, but Ghira's slightly raised hand told all of them to stand down. The leader then turned to the brothers and asked, "Is what they said the truth?"

"... unfortunately, your grace, it is," Fennec answered. "It was actually what we were originally going to discuss in the meeting that was rescheduled."

"Then why the hell weren't you doing anything?" Bakugo asked.

Then it was Corsac who answered. "We'd had suspicions of a potential splinter cell long before Beacon fell, but until this incident we could prove nothing."

"Incident? It was a fucking disaster!" Blake exclaimed. "People are _**dead**_."

"And it _is_ a tragedy. But-" Corsac began before he was once more interrupted.

"A lot more are probably injured permanently, or maybe even crippled," Bakugo chimed in. "'Tragedy' doesn't even begin to describe what happened."

"And a few people are in comas that they might not wake up from," Sun said, Bakugo not quite having time to notice the very specific nature of Sun's statement before Ghira once more stepped in.

"Alright! Alright! That is enough!" the large man said, now putting himself fully between the two parties before they gained half the mind to slaughter each other. "Everyone here wants the same thing. For those responsible for unnecessary suffering to see justice. But clawing at each other's throats will accomplish nothing. So please, stand down."

…

"... should I even ask who was leading this splinter group?" Ghira said, as though he were expecting the exact answer that the others were about to voice.

"It was lead by one Adam Taurus. I believe you're all well acquainted with his... extreme philosophies?" Fennec asked in turn.

It was at this point that Bakugo, now thoroughly infuriated to a point that he didn't think was possible after all the meditation, turned and went back inside in order to avoid any more sudden bursts of anger from something the Fox or the Hound might say. Fucking Oum, he was so angry he just wanted to _**kill**_ -

 _No Oumdammit. I did not go through four months of training just to lose control now. Get it together you dumbass. Breathe. Breathe. Breathe..._

 _(a few hours later, the Belladonna home, Bakugo's POV)_

That stars looked so unnaturally peaceful that night. Like they always had, long before the possibility of Beacon had ever entered his mind as a child. It was simultaneously reassuring... and honestly quite terrifying. They were like the eyes of unbiased observers. Simply... watching. Waiting.

But, the blonde direwolf was brought back down to Remnant by Neo, who'd taken the liberty of sitting herself down right next to him on the rooftop. She made no move to type anything, and instead tilted her head upwards to watch the sky with him. After a few short seconds of a questioning look, Bakugo relented and joined her. The silence that passed between the two was a comfortable one. It went on for several long moments, possibly even a few minutes. Bakugo wasn't entirely sure. But, of course, it had to be broken eventually.

"... so, what brings you up to this lonely little rooftop?" Bakugo asked as casually as he could. Geez, it'd been literal hours since Tweedledee and Tweedledum had left and he was _still_ pissed, even if it was more of a mild annoyance at this point.

Neo's response came quickly. _"You were pretty quiet during dinner and basically disappeared once you were finished. Blake wanted to give you space, and Sun tried to find you and help you out, but he collapsed halfway through searching. He's exhausted."_

"Huh. Didn't realize he cared that much," Bakugo observed.

She then further explained, _"That's not what I meant. He's just... the guy's been tired for a lot longer than we've seen him. I'm guessing he's been having trouble sleeping or something, because it's going to be a problem if it keeps up."_

"Gunchucks 'll be fine. If that guy can help beat down an entire dock full of Fang grunts, he'll get through this no problem," Bakugo replied, though they both knew that wasn't the problem. He'd been meaning to ask Sun about his team again, but after some reflection, he realized that might not be the best thing to ask, given that the last time he'd done that he'd seen the color begin to drain from the guy's face. Something had happened. Something bad. But that was Sun's story to tell, and it would be told in due time. He hoped.

"So... you and your uncle-" Bakugo began before Neo raised her hand to silence him and began typing out a retort.

" _Yeah. We helped the Fang steal Dust. A_ _lot_ _of Dust. Drove the prices up to quite a pretty profit. Sorry about that. In our own defense, we only would've taken the money, and_ _only_ _the money, from only half the stores to keep a lower profile, but our boss had a different plan in mind. Seriously, if I ever see that bitch again, I'm going to stab her in the eye."_ When Bakugo looked back to her, he could see the pure anger that was radiating off of her in a dark pink Aura. He then took note to never make her seriously angry for the sake of his own life.

"So, what's your relation to these 'Sand Wraith' guys. They family or something?" Bakugo asked, having not been able to finish the message she'd typed out hours earlier.

" _I guess you could say that,"_ Neo responded. _"I... didn't really have a stable childhood. It was a lot of moving around and getting by until Roman started the thief thing. I needed help, and we had almost no Lien. After that, we just wanted enough to secure our own lives. And then we fell in with the wrong people."_

"... damn. Sounds like quite the story," Bakugo said.

" _It is. And that's all you'll be hearing for the moment. If it's all the same to you, I'd rather not dig up any unpleasant memories right now,"_ she typed.

"... alright. That's fair," the blonde direwolf said as the two returned to silence, the stars overhead ever bright and unchanging as a few streaks of cosmic light streaked across. If Neo had a wish to be made, she didn't voice it. Bakugo had one, but if some god or pantheon existed, they probably weren't going to listen to it.

Then, he felt a tap on his shoulder. The blonde then turned back to Neo, who then gestured to her head and back to his shoulder.

"... why?"

" _Because the roof's uncomfortable and it's starting to get cold,"_ she quickly explained.

Bakugo simply sighed and shrugged, giving his shoulder up to the pint-sized thief as she snuggled in with a silent, but contented, sigh. Oh well. It's not as though she weighed that much anyway. It was actually kinda nice.

And so, in somewhat more comfortable positions, the two stayed in that same spot for an unknown amount of time, the peace of the night sky calming Bakugo's uncertain heart. What a day. What a day indeed.

 **A/N: And that's it for this one! Hope you all enjoyed this one! I had a lot of fun writing out the humor and the interactions. And now:**

 **Review Responses:**

 **Thunder Dragon: Well, somewhat, but he's not quite as unhinged as Bakugo was at the start of the series. We'll just have to see how this develops as the series goes on.**

 **Kaiser Dragon: Oh yes, yes they will.**

 **Rune Dragon432: I'd disagree, but you're not exactly wrong. She has it coming.**

 **Odin's Eye: Thanks! I did enjoy writing their interaction, even though it wasn't quite as lengthy as I wanted it to be. Which is a bit ironic, considering that the last chapter was over 10,000 words.**

 **God-King Ghidora: I did try. I don't think I did a very good job with it though.**

 **King Ceasar Jr: Well, I think she'd be initially frustrated, but eventually come to understand why. I'm trying to make Yang a bit more reasonable than her show counterpart. Doesn't mean she won't be mad about it though.**

 **Midgardsormr Jr: That he just might, especially considering all the meditation and balancing he's been utilizing.**

 **Enku: Nope, and thank goodness for that. While his recovery won't be instantaneous, I will promise now that he will get better. Eventually. And it won't be easy. Nothing worth earning or fighting for ever is.**

 **Next Chapter: April 5** **th**

 **Seeya in the next one!**


	49. Lonely Lullaby, Lonely Warrior

**A/N: Welp! Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice recently released as of the time I'm writing this note, and I'm now playing it religiously. Seriously, I didn't think it was possible for me to enjoy a From Software game this much since I'm so bad at them, but by god, this one is just the perfect balance of making you feel powerful and helpless at the same time. It's truly a thing to behold.**

 **Also, OH MY GOD WE'RE AT 600+ REVIEWS! YES! THANK YOU ALL SO MUCH!**

 **Anyhow, that's enough of me going on about videogames. I know what you're all here for. Enjoy the chapter!**

 **Note: This chapter may contain some underage drinking depending on where you live. Please know that I do not condone the act and do not mean to encourage it. I'm simply using it to set up cultural difference between countries. Thank you for understanding.**

 **Disclaimer: I do not own RWBY or My Hero Academia. They belong to Monty Oum, Kohei Horikoshi, and their respective publishing companies. Please support the official releases.**

 **I do not own the cover image.**

Chapter 49: Lonely Lullaby, Lonely Warrior

It had been a few days since Izuku had last seen Qrow. He'd taken the man's advice, and hadn't told anyone of the rather tense conversation the two had with Raven, nor did he speak of Qrow's presence. It was weighing on him even more now, all the secrets and lies that he hated having to both tell and keep. How long would he be able to keep this up? Could he keep this up? _Should_ he?

Keeping One for All a secret was one thing. _That_ he could do. _That_ he could live with. But this? It felt like it was tantamount to betrayal, keeping this from the others. They deserved to know. But they would be put in further danger. But they needed to understand why they were going to Mistral.

 _Yang deserves to know about her mom!_

And then she'd ask what else he knew. And he wouldn't be able to lie to her. Not deliberately.

"Izuku?" he heard the girl in question ask as he was once again distracted from his internal monologue. "You're spacing out again."

"Ah! Sorry. Just a bit tired," the green-haired inheritor quickly answered, scratching the back of his head as Yang nodded and turned back to the path ahead of them, though he did notice a bit of doubt in her eyes before she did so. Crap. He was really starting to worry people now, wasn't he?

"Exactly how long did you think this trip was going to be, Ruby?" Ren asked the rose-themed reaper, who promptly turned rather sheepish and a bit embarrassed.

"Erm... maybe... a few weeks?" she answered with a hesitant shrug.

"... Ruby, it took us that long just to get to Anima's western shores," Jaune pointed out, his eyes remaining fixed to the map in front of him.

"It also took us that same amount of time to get as close as we have to Pyrrha's home city," Shoto continued.

"Okay! Look, Yang and I grew up in a small area! This is probably the furthest away from home I've been in my entire life. I guess I... wasn't as prepared as I should've been. It still feels pretty surreal," Ruby admitted.

"Well, it's definitely been a learning experience," Yang said as she tried her hand at lightening the mood. "Besides, we've been getting by just fine. And I don't think any of us were quite prepared for how long this trip was going to be."

"Fair," Nora said absentmindedly.

"So, what's the next town called?" Izuku asked Jaune.

"Oh! Erm... it's... huh? That's weird," he said, putting himself closer to the map, stopping in his tracks and causing the group to stop with him.

"What is it?" Izuku asked as he moved closer, peaking over the blonde knight's shoulder and getting a good look at their map of Anima.

"There's a marker, but there isn't a name," Jaune said as he pointed to the place in question. Sure enough, there was a beady black dot marking their next destination, yet there was no name listed. What was that place then? A ruin? Had it been abandoned?

Out of the corner of his eye, Izuku could see Ren visibly flinch at their conversation. He knew that the guy was from this part of Anima, but he seemed to have a personal connection to this specific type of geography. As though he'd navigated it long ago, and was stepping back into it for the first time in years. It honestly caused Izuku some concern for his magenta-eyed friend.

"Well, let's play it by ear and see what happens when we get there," Shoto said as they continued on in relative silence. Nora babbled on about grenades, Jaune muttered to himself about paths and routes, while Shoto kept a silent vigil at their front and Ruby and Yang decided to chat about nothing at all. This left Izuku alone with his own thoughts as he continued to mull over the pros and cons of telling the group what he knew.

As it turned out, they didn't have to wait much longer. Only three minutes since their conversation, they came across stone wall stained by water and grout, with moss creeping at the edges and old tiling coming loose and crumbling away. It was genuinely harrowing. And the buildings beyond that hadn't even been finished, with clay and drywall crumbling from their frames, wooden beams holding sturdy, but potentially rotting from termites and exposure to the elements.

"Hey... those buildings are damaged!" Nora exclaimed, drawing Maginhild from her back and causing most of the group to draw their weapons in turn and ready themselves for a fight. Everyone except Ren and Izuku.

"Hold on!" Izuku said as he explained his reasoning. "This place looks like it's been abandoned for a long time. Look at the staining and the moss," he gestured to the walls, pointing to a place in the wall that had been damaged with a large indent as he continued, "And that damage looks like it's been smoothed over by the elements. There's no way this was recent. This place was probably abandoned years ago."

As he finished his explanation, everyone slowly put their weapons away, a few of the sighing in relief while Nora smacked herself in the forehead as she chided herself. "Sorry. Guess I jumped the gun again, huh?"

"You weren't wrong to react the way you did," Shoto said as he reassured the bubbly grenadier, Izuku giving a nod just behind him in agreement. "But some forethought would be wiser if we come across something like this again."

"... alright!" Nora responded, though her cheer sounded somewhat forced, and they continued on into the quiet town.

To call it a ghost town would be an understatement. To say it was a ruin would only be somewhat accurate. Either way, it was a peculiarly haunting place. It was long in the literal sense, designed with a wide cobblestone road running through the center and a vast array of buildings with varying heights and similar designs. In the center of the road was a single sign made of smooth stone with an old wooden frame, whatever was carved onto it having been covered up by the vines that had started to overgrow much of the area.

When they reached the sign, Nora brushed aside the foliage to read what had been written on the sign, though it was far from normally legible, sounding out, "O... ni... yur... i? Oniyuri. That... sounds familiar."

"... wait. Yuri?" Yang wondered aloud. "As in... guys, I think we might be at the first stop on the Yuri Trail."

"She's right. Look," Jaune said as he laid the map on the ground, pointing to their approximate location. "Even though the trail officially starts around here," he pointed to a place a few miles east, "it technically starts here," he then pointed back to their position, "and this place is only a day away from Athens, so we'll probably just have to come back through here at least once. Unless we can't take the other route."

"... Ren? You've been pretty quiet," Shoto asked as he looked to the magenta-eyed boy, who looked wistfully on at the abandoned townscape of Oniyuri, a strange sadness in his eyes.

"... I know this place well," Ren said as he walked towards one of the taller building frames. "I suppose you could call it Anima's 'Moutain Glenn.' If it had never been finished."

"... wait if that's true, then..." Izuku said as the gears began to turn in his brain, piecing everything together from what little Ren and Nora had let slip about their pasts. The fact that they were orphans, that they were both from Anima, that they'd stuck by each other since they were very young, and...

"... oh Oum..."

"Yeah. I'm guessing most of you know the story?" Ren asked, the only ones not knowing much about what he was speaking of being Ruby and Shoto, the former because she was quite young and the latter because he'd always been kept quite busy during those times.

"Well, the short version is, certain people within Mistral's upper class were... unhappy with how the kingdom was being run at the time. It was shortly after the Faunus War, and Mistral was beginning to strike its old laws on faunus labor from the books. Some of the upper class wanted the laws to remain as they were, wouldn't move for any reason, no matter how logical. Others fought against them in the courts, and despite the fact that they were horribly outnumbered there, they had the support of the people, and eventually made faunus' equal citizens, though both the sentiment and the new laws were never enough to stop discrimination completely. It never is.

"But before that, there were those who became sick of all the arguments and petty scheming, on both sides of the equation. They'd had enough, and decided to pool their resources, and leave that world behind. Build a new place where they could be who they wanted to be, do what they wanted to do, without living up to the expectations and responsibilities placed upon them by both their peers and their own ancestors. The hope was that the Yuri settlements would one day become their own cities. Maybe even a kingdom, in their own right. A lot of people thought it would be the future of Anima."

Ren stopped as he looked down at the cobblestone road, turning back to the group as he continued, "And now all that's left is nothing but ghost towns of old hopes and broken dreams," and he looked back up, tears threatening to spill over from the corners of his eyes as he continued, "Nothing but regrets."

"... but... how did... what happened?" Ruby asked, though she was hesitant to do so.

Ren remained silent as he walked over to a smoothly cut, low stone wall, barely coming up to just below his waist, brushing aside the dust to reveal a deep claw mark that had been smoothed over from the years of weather and neglect. "... what always happens."

His eyes then briefly flashed to the left before flickering back to the claw mark, shaking his head as he turned around and said, "C'mon. We need to get moving."

And the other began to follow in a solemn silence, Izuku remaining behind just long enough to check what Ren had been looking at. Indented into the cobble, enough that the ground beneath it could actually be seen, was a massive, intimidating hoofprint. It looked twice the size of a horse's hoof, though it held the same shape, and it was old. As old as the town itself. It couldn't be anything but a Grimm.

But, even as he noted the presence of such a thing, it was old, and something that Ren was not likely to want to speak about. So, he turned and followed after the group, never shaking the feeling that someone was watching them. Someone who wasn't Qrow.

 _(meanwhile, the Schnee Concert Hall, Tenya's POV)_

Weiss's singing was something of a local legend among the high class of Atlas. Apparently, her voice was so soothing and borderline hypnotic that one could sometimes see images of an entirely different time and place: that was simply how beautiful it was to listen to.

Tenya had not yet had the pleasure of listening to one of her songs, but with all this excitement about her performing he would admit he was quite curious. Even if she was doing it for a shady campaign of her father's, noble though it may have been on the surface.

He sat in the same high-rise seating as Jacque at the man's request, sitting right next to Whitely and Mrs. Adel, a woman who bore a striking resemblance to her daughter, the only differences being the crow's feet at the edge of her eyes and other lines of age that were beginning to show themselves, in addition to her sense of fashion, a formal halter neck dress of a deep violet, complementing the glass of white wine she held in her hand. Momo sat the furthest to the right, her hair done in its signature style as she waited for the performance to begin.

Surprisingly, Whitley didn't seem all that bothered by his presence, something he noticed was far different than the reaction of Mrs. Adel, who only gave him a passing glance before huffing to herself while trying to keep him out of her line of vision. It was strange, given that his only interactions with the boy had been brief, and yet he seemed far more tolerable than his father. At least the boy wasn't constantly trying to use him as a pawn in a game of status and fake goodwill. As far as he knew, at least. Best to see where things were taken.

Endeavor sat to Jacque's right, his flaming bread and mustache seeming to have dimmed to the point that it wasn't distracting. The man hardly even looked as though he were present. There was a loneliness in his eyes, something that Tenya never expected from a man of his position. He had what he'd always wanted. He was finally at the top. Why would he be even remotely upset?

Of course, those thoughts were silenced as the lights over the audience began to dim, attention turning to the stage as Weiss stepped on, the crowd silencing itself as she did so. And... oh... she'd gone back to her unaligned ponytail. He didn't have to turn to know that Jacque disapproved of that choice of hairstyle, but it appeared as though the girl in question didn't care in the slightest. But, for the moment, she had a song to sing.

It began with the slow, melancholic tones of a piano, while the white-haired heiress' eyes remained shut as she breathed in and out, steadying herself for the performance as the crowd watched with bated breath and wondering eyes. Momo smiled ever so briefly to herself, likely knowing just which song Weiss was going to perform, something that had been kept a surprise to everyone else, including him.

And then, she began. "Mirror... can you hear me? Do I... reach you?"

Images of pondering and tension entered Tenya's mind.

"Are you... even listening? Can I... get through?"

A flash to looking at the back of his elder brother. Another led him to practicing, failing, falling. Over and over.

"There's a part of me that's desperate for changes... tired of being treated like a pawn..."

A flash to Beacon, and of his teammates. His friends. And a flash to Jacque, a smug smile disguised as a look of compassion.

"But there's part of me that stares back from inside the mirror... part of me that's scared I might be wrong..."

Then, he was taken back to his hospital bed, when he first learned of his paralysis. And the hopelessness that set in thereafter.

"That I can't... be... strong..."

His doubt over his abilities. His helplessness to the hands of Serpent Saw. And again, his legs.

And then, a long high note, filled with melancholy, that drew everyone in the hall closer into the performance. It felt almost like a cry in the form of song. And then, it grew higher, built in emotion and hope as the instruments behind her accompanied the journey upward.

"I've been afraid... never standing on my own... I let you be the keeper of my pride!"

An image of his teammates outpacing him, struggling to keep up with their pace. His previous weapon, Pride, shattering under Serpent Saw's foot.

"Believed you when you told me I was nothing on my own..."

An image of Serpent Saw's malice, laced with only a grain of pity to be born human.

"Listen when I say... I swear it here today..."

Thoth, offering him a hand up. His therapy, months of grueling work just to get the most basic of basic movement back.

"I will not surrender, this life... is... mine!"

And then, him standing in a field of open grass, the wind on his face and the sun high in the sky. On his own two restored feet.

That was where the song ended. The applause was almost instantaneous, the crowd erupting to a buzzing center of praise as Weiss bowed to them, and looked straight towards where they were.

Jacque was disapproving, but he made no move to vocalize his mood, and Mrs. Adel and Endeavor gave polite applause, though it did seem as though the latter had been reminded of something, and it was currently occupying his thoughts. Momo clapped at a slow pace, but the smile on her face and in her eyes was undeniable. She was truly happy for her friend, and Tenya couldn't help but be happy with her. Were he able to fully handle his own weight at that moment, he would've gladly stood with her.

Whitely, on the other hand, gave polite applause and a slight smirk that reminded him a bit too much of Jacque's, but there was something in his eyes that said he felt far prouder of his elder sister than he allowed himself to show. A question to ponder another time.

For the moment... they had the after party to attend.

 _(meanwhile, the Schnee Banquet Hall, Tenya's POV)_

Tenya had come to dislike these sorts of things with a certain... ferocity that could not yet be put into the words of any language known to either man or faunus. It mostly came from a time where he and his brother had been forced to attend banquet after banquet after banquet- he detested banquets.

The food was sparse and often unsatisfying, the drinks, from what he'd heard from his mother, were often never strong enough, and the people were either boring enough to snore to or slippery enough to never get a proper read on.

Luckily, no one seemed to be approaching him at all. A rather unusual but not unwelcome change of pace for this kind of event, as far as he was concerned. It gave him a chance to observe the room and see who was talking to whom, and what deals might take place. Deals of all kinds and degrees of legality could take place at these events, even charities.

"Tenya Iida?" he heard someone ask him. As he glanced his head to the side, he saw the headmaster of Atlas' own Hunter Academy standing beside him with a genuine smile across his exhausted and somewhat disheveled face. There was a faded but preset shadow on his chin and cheeks, and the light lines beneath his eyes were now heavier, more noticeable. Otherwise, he looked to be in relatively good health, though he certainly looked as though he could do with some sleep.

"Yes. How are you faring, General?" the spectacled boy asked back.

"Please, call me James. I've honestly grown a bit tired of the title. It's been... hectic, to say the least. What with the resistance Jacque has been putting up, it's been difficult to get much done. And what refugees have found their way to Atlas... haven't been treated well. I've been doing everything in my power to make things easier, but it's unfortunately less than I'd like. I hope that I'll eventually be able to give them greater chances, maybe even ensure employment, but for now all I can really do is give them a roof over their heads and half-decent food. It's not much, but it's better than nothing."

Tenya gave a solemn nod to that. There was quite the flood of people after Vale fell to the Grimm, and while most of them made their way through Anima to Mistral, causing some overpopulation concerns within the city and more than a few less than desirable responses, there were those who thought it might've been better to make their way to Solitas rather than the far eastern kingdom. Of course, there was the fact that not all people here were all that welcoming to outsiders, especially faunus, but it might've been better than how things were going down in Mistral.

"But enough of the negatives. Things have started to look up. There are a few plans in place that may help us ensure some stability to those who made it all the way here. Anyways... how have you been? The last time I saw you and your team was at the tournament," Ironwood asked in an attempt to lighten the mood.

"I've been well. Or as well as I can be," Tenya said. "There was a rough adjustment period, but I've gotten a lot more comfortable since then. Though I cannot say the same of others. That... will take a very long time to get used to."

"True. Those like us aren't exactly looked upon kindly," Ironwood said as he nimbly moved and flexed the fingers of his gloved right hand. Hadn't he lost most of the right side of his body? That had been before his instatement as general too, hadn't it? What kind of uphill climb did he go through to become such an esteemed person?

"Yes. Before, it was something that I had to accept was part of a culture I could never hope to understand entirely. Having lived it now... how did you do it? How did you deal with all the whispers and jabs behind your back?" Tenya asked with genuine curiosity. He had his own ways of dealing with people, and while they worked well enough, it would do well for him to expand his horizons at least a little bit.

"If you want my advice for how to deal with people... never forget what you are. Or who. Embrace it. Wear it with pride, like armor. If you can do that, it can never be used to hurt you," he said with eloquence that Tenya honestly hadn't been expecting from the man. It also seemed to be personal advice, and it likely was, having gone through something just as harrowing and perspective shifting as he had.

But that was where their conversation lulled and ended in a comfortable silence, the chatter of the other guests filling it as the party continued on without their input.

 _(meanwhile, the same hall, Momo's POV)_

A sigh escaped Momo's lips as she lifted another glass of champagne from a server's tray. Or what she assumed was champagne. If it was, it would be her last of the night. Just because the drinking age in Atlas was seventeen didn't mean she was about to splurge and get blackout drunk. She and Shoto had already done that once to celebrate his going to Beacon, and while nothing _too_ compromising happened between them, it was not an experience she'd like to relive anytime soon.

"Phew. I finally managed to slip away," Weiss said as she came to her friend's side, breathing a sigh of relief as her eyes suddenly snapped to another passing tray of champagne, from which she expertly plucked a nearby glass like an expert. Surprising, seeing as, to Momo's knowledge, the white-haired heiress had never so much as touched an alcoholic drink in her entire life.

"Are you entirely sure drinking that is wise? I'd have personally started you off with something a bit less strong. Like hard cider. Oum, I miss hard cider," Momo warned Weiss as she briefly reminisced about her favorite alcohol.

"I'm eighteen. I'm going to start drinking some time. Why not now?" she responded before lifting the glass to her lips, only to recoil slightly once she had a proper taste. "Oh... oh wow... I was _not_ prepared for that."

"Like I said, should've started with something less strong," Momo said as she downed her entire flute of champagne in one go. Yep. That was it for the night. Any more and she wouldn't be able to keep her composure. "And don't worry about it too much. Alcohol is an acquired taste. To be honest, I used to hate it. Now... well, it's a bit of comfort to have a glass or two, every few weeks or so."

"... I suppose," Weiss said as she stared towards one of the paintings on display. When Momo turned to see it, she couldn't help but feel guilty for the girl. It was a perfect painting of the entryway to Beacon as it had always been before the attack: the tower standing proud in the center of the school, the arches of symmetrical stone, autumn leaves of maroonish orange hanging from the branches of the oak trees, and the path that welcomed all who wished to learn. Momo had never seen the place in person. She wished she could've.

"Hello there," Momo heard from her left, giving the boy a passing glance before turning back to the painting in question. "You're Momo Yaoyorozu, right?"

"... and to whom am I speaking?" she replied, turning fully to the person in question, getting a good look at him in the process. He had light brown eyes and dull-blue hair in an undercut hairstyle, with the long unshaved hair swept to his left and hanging ever so slightly in front of his face. He wore a maroon dress shirt and black tie with a black vest decorated with a marigold flower design, silver buttons, and a breast pocket that contained a red handkerchief. He also wore a pair of black pants and gray dress shoes. His black belt was worn over his vest and had a silver chain connected to the front of it, with the other end trailing into his left pocket. On his index and ring fingers on each hand, he wore plain silver rings.

"Henry. Marigold," he said with a tinge of pride.

 _Is he... no, it couldn't be the same Merigold. His hair color is far different, and he acts too... full of himself._

"So... are you going to buy it?"

"Hm?" she asked as she was brought out of her thoughts.

"The painting."

"... no."

"Yeah. It is pretty expensive for a painting."

"... do you even know what it's for? Or why this event is happening in the first place?"

"Not really. I came for the entertainment. And the extraordinary company," Henry said as he swiped a champagne flute from a server's tray, only for his wrist to be grasped by another, firmly, and a pair of emerald green eyes to stare him down. The woman then gestured sharply towards the door with her thumb, to which Henry gave nervous sigh before making his way out of the hall, downing the entire glass as he did so.

The woman then sighed and tilted her head downwards as she apologized. "I'm sorry for my nephew. He can be... very insensitive."

"No need for that. He was the one being rude, not you," Momo said, taking a moment to give the woman a bit of a closer look. Her hair was a bright, rosy red, though not quite light enough to be overly distracting, and was tied back in a low knot that trailed down her back, her face holding a small but welcoming smile and vivid green eyes so bright that for a second or two Momo thought they might've been glowing. The dress she wore had no upper support, leaving her upper back and some of her cleavage exposed, colored a very dark, greener shade of teal that ran down to her ankles, with pearls embedded symmetrically throughout the upper hem and wavy floral designs in white near the bottom hem, a pair of dark green pumps completing her outfit.

"I know, but he still shouldn't have done that," the woman said, offering her hand as she introduced herself. "I'm Triss. Triss Merigold."

.

..

…

"... oh..." Momo whispered to herself in shock. "As in... Merigold the Fearless? Iron Merigold?"

"Yup. That's me," she said with a silly wave. "I didn't want to make a big deal out of being here, so I'd appreciate it if you could keep this on the down low," she asked with a sheepish smile and a hushed tone.

"But... oh wow, this is a big deal," Momo said as she shifted some of her weight onto one of the nearby posts, causing Triss to look somewhat uncomfortable. "Sorry! It's just... I'm not exactly used to meeting one of my heroes."

"It's certainly not an everyday occurrence. To be honest, were this taking place just a few years ago, I'd have gladly come bursting through the halls, give this place a surge in potential donors. Now... well, fame is a double-edged sword, after all. All the interviews, the events, the fighting... it got to be tiring. _Very_ tiring. After a while, my husband and I just wanted to get away from it all. He was never as famous as I was, but he was still bothered by what attention he did receive. Even though it did get him high-paying hunts. So... yeah," she explained. "Sorry for the tangent. Went way off topic, huh?"

Momo immediately shook her head no, not wanting to disappoint one of her idols. Even if she was right about her own tangent. After a few seconds of silence between them, Momo found her nerve and asked Triss a question that had been eating at her for a while now.

"So, I've been meaning to ask... what do you do now?"

"Hm? Oh, I run a healer's shop. Helping people was one of the things I enjoyed the most as a huntress. Geralt agreed. Actually put up his swords, something I thought he'd never do. We're not that active anymore, but we try to support hunters however and whenever we can. Which is why..." Triss said as she glanced about the room, pausing as though she were briefly thinking of something before saying with a cheeky grin, "I've decided to purchase everything here at top price. Discreetly, of course."

"That's... that's a _lot_ of Lien," Momo whispered. _Even my family would be cautious of making a purchase like this._

Triss simply turned back to the confused girl, stating, "True though that is, I've always had plenty of money to spare, even now that I'm running the shop. Geralt and I always helped what charities existed to assist as many hunters as we could, but this'll do much more good for Vale than sitting around, twiddling our thumbs while we wait for clearer communications to get back up."

"... that's very kind of you," Momo replied. As Triss regained her sheepish look and was about to retort and try to keep herself humble, until they heard the Schnee heiress cry out in anger.

"HOW DARE YOU!"

The crowd around them was silent. No one moved. Weiss's eyes were glued to a particular blonde woman near the middle of the room, her irises burning with blazing blue fury. Literally; were her eyes glowing any brighter Momo would've sworn that they'd been set ablaze.

"DO YOU HAVE ANY IDEA WHAT HAPPENED THERE?! ANYTHING AT ALL?!"

"I said-"

"DON'T START WITH THAT CRAP AGAIN! PEOPLE ARE DEAD, GRIMM ARE RUNNING FREE, MY FRIEND DIED AND I COULDN'T DO ANYTHING ABOUT IT! DON'T YOU DARE SPEAK AS THOUGH THEY DESERVED A FATE LIKE THAT, YOU IGNORANT BITCH!"

Then, suddenly, Jacque came from Weiss's left in an attempt to silence his daughter, only succeeding in knocking her to the ground. As she made contact with the floor, however, a glyph appeared near where her left hand had landed, and expanded to larger proportions as, almost materializing out of thin air, appeared a white form. It was low, semi-rotund, but looked both very muscular and very dangerous. It was the same as a Boarbatusk, with a phantom-like white body and blue markings running throughout it, and a distinctly beast-like howl erupting from its maw.

And then, it stared down the woman that Weiss had just cursed out, and then suddenly charged with all the speed of its originator, causing the woman to back away in pure terror as she cried out for help when suddenly-

 **BLAM!**

 **CRACK!**

 **FOOM!**

 **FLASH!**

As quickly as it had begun, it was suddenly over. Off to the side of the room, Ironwood had drawn and fired his revolver, and Tenya had done the same, brandishing a Desert Eagle model pistol in his left hand, with Endeavor in the far corner holding his arm towards where the now vanished summon had once been, lowering it since the threat had been eliminated, and Triss herself standing in front of Momo, her hands set ablaze, as she lowered the blazing shield she had barely managed to place in front of the woman before the summoned beast had managed to lay into her.

As Triss exhaled, putting out her hands and rubbing her forehead to dull what seemed to be a headache, and Momo recovered from the shock to assisted her friend from the ground, the same blonde woman stood up and pointed straight at Weiss, yelling out, "Arrest her!"

Everyone was silent as Weiss was helped back to her feet and Ironwood approached them, making sure that Weiss was alright before turning to that same woman and saying, "Why? She seems to be one of the only people here with any sense."

"But-"

"Mam. Please leave before this gets any worse for you," Triss said in a cold and authoritative tone, a far cry from her earlier humble and warm voice that seemed to reassure Momo just by hearing it.

And so, with great reluctance, the woman and her husband relented and made their way out of the hall. With a heavy sigh, Ironwood once more put his weapon into his jacket, turned to Jacque and traded glares for a brief moment before exiting the room entirely, leaving the man free to slowly turn back to his daughter, his eyes filled with a cold fury not unlike the one present in Weiss's earlier. But this fury, while so strikingly similar, couldn't have been any more different.

And through it all, clenching his own fist behind his back, Whitley watched, waited, and hoped for the best. It was all he could do right now. Conceal your feelings. Don't let them show. You know what happens when he sees them.

But still, he struggled to keep himself from doing something rash. From making things worse. Like he always did.

 _(meanwhile, Oniyuri, Izuku's POV)_

The crack in the rubble wasn't the first sign that something was off, but it was more obvious than the other signs, and got the attention of the others. The green haired inheritor reached over his shoulder and took Tempest from his back, gripping it tightly in both hands as everyone else in turn drew their weapons and readied themselves for a fight.

And then, out of the corner of his eye, he saw a shadow begin to darken the cobblestone road beside him, giving him just enough time to barely step to the side before a giant fist was plowed into the ground. As he skidded to a halt, Tempest readied at his side, he saw that this person's flesh seemed to have escaped the confines of their skin, a writhing mass of sinew and muscle connected to this person's shoulder.

"You dodged. Good," the man said in a deep voice, his face completely covered thanks to the assistance of a white mask lined with small holes and a black cloak that shrouded most of his body. "It wouldn't be any fun if you just stood there and gave it to me."

It was also at this time that another man leapt over the stone archway with an unnatural rage, glaring at Izuku's cloaked attacker as the others tried to move in to help him, saying, "You imbecile! You were meant to wait for my command!" he then popped out his wrist-mounted guns and trained them onto the group, causing them to scatter as he fired at them with reckless abandon.

Ren and Ruby fired back with their own weapons, causing the two to separate and Izuku to leap after the cloaked one, seeing an opportunity to attack in his off-balance landing. Tempest's blade met the man's again enlarged arm as he responded, "I take no orders from you. We were told to take those two out, I decided to take 'em out. And the green one looked like he'd be a good fight. Besides..."

"I WANT TO SEE HIM BLEED!"

And with the rebound of his backswing, Izuku was thrown back from the cloaked man, planting his blade into the ground to slow his momentum and regain his footing, taking a stance with Tempest in a backhanded grip and glaring at the cloaked man with glowing green eyes, his markings beginning to glow from One for All's gradual flow, sparks flying off of him and making their way to the ground beneath.

"Izuku! Are you okay?!" he heard Yang call out to him as the rest of the group kept their eyes on the man in the trench coat, his guns still pointed at the group as their tense standoff continued.

"I'm fine! Stay back!" he quickly responded.

"Oh, how touching. It's sweet how you don't want them to get involved," the cloaked man said as he lowered his hood, revealing his lightly tanned skin and blonde hair, though he left his mask on. "But that sentiment isn't going to protect them forever. You-"

"Shut your damn mouth, you imbecile! Do you have no sense when to hold back?! Or how to employ proper intimidation?!" the trench coat wearing man berated his partner.

"Who cares about that? If they bleed, they bleed, and then they die, simple as that," the cloaked man said, pulling his arms back as the slowly enlarged and burst with pink flesh.

"We aren't here to kill them, you fool! I will not disappoint our goddess!"

"What the hell are you talking about?!" Jaune asked, Lancelot's torso appearing above him with his sword clutched in both hands.

"Oh, worry not, dear little hunters," the man said as he lowered his guns and took a bow, his voice shifting to a more joyous and coy tone that seemed far colder than anything else they'd heard from him thus far. No one made a move to attack, sensing that he hadn't dropped his guard in even the slightest. "My name is Tyrian. This man beside me currently has not named himself, much to my own chagrin. But we don't matter to... you... or you... or even you..." he said as he slowly pointed towards every member of the group, stopping as he rested his eyes on Jaune, and quickly flickered to Yang as a more menacing smile spread across his lips. "... well. You two are quite interesting, I'll admit. Alas, we're not here for either of you today.

"No, we only matter to you," he pointed directly at Ruby, and shifted his other hand towards him. "And you. The Silver Eyed Warrior...

"... and the Ninth Inheritor."

 **A/N: And that's where we're leaving it for the moment! Sorry for the abrupt ending, but I've had quite the busy few weeks, and what with everything that's been happening updates might be a bit slow from this point on. I'll try to keep things on schedule, but please be patient. Thank you for understanding. And now:**

 **Review Responses:**

 **Guest: Thank you!**

 **God-King Ghidora: I tried my best to implement it, but I couldn't find one in time. It does tie into the fact that Blake definitely isn't a people person though.**

 **Midgardsormr Jr: I tried. That's really all I can say for that particular joke. You'll just have to wait and see about that!**

 **Kaiser Dragon: Luckily, you are not, and thank god for that. And I always wanted to see how those two would interact. This'll be fun.**

 **Kin Ceasar Jr: …**

 ***flips through far-future arc notes***

… **you'll have to wait a while for** _ **that**_ **to come into the picture. *slams notes shut* A _long _ while. And yes, they're going to talk eventually, but not now. **

**Odin's Eye: Doing my best!**

 **Enku (1): Well, we still don't know much about Neo and Roman in the canon, so I'll hold out some hope for them. I am happy with what I did manage to do though.**

 **Thunder Dragon: I'm happy to entertain! You'll find out... eventually!**

 **DD Lore Nerd: Glad to see you're interested!**

 **Enku (2): Now I want to watch the Lion King again. SO MANY CATCHY SONGS!**

 **Mecha Manda: That won't be all it is, but that will play some part in it.**

 **KongKing94: Not quite, but close.**

 **Leviathan's Heir: In this version, he's a 'rage,' or Red, Berserker. You'll see how this stuff is explained as we go further along. Thanks again to Odin Eye for help with the Berserker Research!**

 **Guest: I... honestly don't know. I've been pretty busy, both with this story and with my life in general, so it could be a pretty long while before I get to any of those ideas, if I ever manage to get to them at all. I'm only human, and I unfortunately have my limits.**

 **PokBloxStories: Hope you've enjoyed it up to this point!**

 **Black Fang: I'll get on that as soon as I can!**

 **Next Chapter: Apr. 26** **th**

 **Seeya in the next one!**


	50. Breaking Point

**A/N: Not much to say other than... holy shit, we're actually at Chapter 50 now! I... honest to god, I never thought I would ever make it this far. Thank you all so much for your amazing support over the last two years! Enjoy the chapter!**

 **Disclaimer: I do not own RWBY or My Hero Academia. They belong to Monty Oum, Kohei Horikoshi, and their respective publishing companies. Please support the official releases.**

 **I do not own the cover image**

Chapter 50: Breaking Point

The words that were just spoken echoed around within Izuku's mind over and over, like a shout in a hollow cave, as he processed what had just left the crazed man's lips. He knew. He _knew._ But... how in all of Remnant did he know? Was he working with All for One? Or Salem? And how was he going to be able to explain all of this to the others?

"What's he talking about?" Shoto asked both him and Ruby, the latter of whom simply shrugged as she trained her weapon back onto Tyrian as she replied, "I'll explain later, but I don't know that much. Right now, we've gotta stay focused."

Izuku, however, said nothing, his mind almost going into a full-on flashback as he remembered just how dangerous this secret was.

" _Remember, Izuku, this secret_ _cannot_ _be let out. If the wrong people were to discover it, they'd take desperate measures to force you to pass it on to them. They probably won't have any qualms about getting other people involved, or holding them hostage. You shouldn't tell anyone unless you can trust them with your life, and even then, you should do so with caution. I would say don't tell anyone at all, but eventually, you might have to tell someone. But don't tell them unless really_ _do_ _have to tell them. Remember that."_

The masked man then sighed heavily as he drawled, "Booooooriiiiiing. Can we get back to the main event already?!"

Suddenly, faster than Izuku was prepared for, the man shot across the distance between them and slammed his arm into Tempest's edge, which Izuku barely had enough time to lift in defense. He felt his feet leave the ground and was tossed through the air, high above the ruined buildings of Oniyuri as the masked ma rushed after him once more, his grotesque arm cocked behind him as he prepared to strike him once again.

The green haired inheritor, now better prepared, suddenly flipped himself in mid-air and fired off Cirrus and Stratus, launching him away from where the man's fist would've landed, the air blasting outwards from his hand by the sheer force it generated. Using a few more blasts, Izuku managed a rough landing on the roofing of one of the larger archways that overlaid the town, cracking the roof tiles where he'd landed.

He heard a distinct shotgun blast as Yang tried to make her way towards him, and maybe back him up against this overwhelming enemy, but she was intercepted in mid-air by Tyrian, who missed a kick to her face but succeeded in getting her back to the ground, skidding to a halt as the others prepared once for a fight once more, the blonde brawler's eyes burning their signature, angry crimson as Tyrian landed gracefully at the very front of the group, clicking his tongue at them before further taunting, "Let's leave the mad one to his work, no? Why, he's so messy that I fear if anyone but the Inheritor fought him, you'd be crushed to a bloody pulp. And we do need to keep you alive. For the moment, at least."

"Like you're in a position to call someone crazy," Jaune muttered to himself as Ren and Nora rushed in with-

Izuku's vision briefly flashed a signature monochrome, giving him only half a second to dodge the masked man's attack as the wind was once again kicked up from the force of the blow. A parting slash was blocked by the same arm, making him retreat even further as the man's left arm, now also enlarged with writhing muscle, shot right at him in the form of a hook.

Seeing an opportunity in the missed punch, Izuku launched himself upwards with Cirrus and Stratus, flipping to gain further momentum as he brought Tempest into the man's crossed arms once again, steel biting into flesh as the force sent out a deep, audible boom around them, the stone foundation beneath the hulking man's feet giving a loud crack as he strained against the blow.

"Hah! Not bad, kid!" the man yelled as a glow emerged from his right arm, catching Izuku off guard. He was still suspended, and he didn't have enough time to readjust with either of his boots! _Shi-_

"BUT NOT NEARLY GOOD ENOUGH!"

With a sudden, blurry sweep of the man's arm, Izuku felt Tempest become dislodged from the block and thrown towards a nearby building. Seeing as he was still gripping the handle, the green haired inheritor was dragged right along with it, slamming through old plaster and a wooden beam before stopping at a sturdy yet unfinished wall three stories up.

Even from here, he could hear the sounds of everyone fighting that crazed man with the golden eyes. How tough were these guys? The masked one had had him on the defensive for the entirety of their battle, if it could even be called one, and from the sounds of things, everyone else was having trouble keeping up Tyrian. He could only imagine the frustration that Shoto, Nora, Yang, and Jaune were going through right now. Their combat styles were specialized for wide open spaces and large groups. This place was a dense ruin, with several blind spots and environmental hazards. That wasn't even taking into account that they couldn't go all out without potentially getting the others caught in the crossfire: their group was simply too large for that.

But before he could think on that any further, a crash alerted him once more to the masked man's presence, his eyes fixing themselves on his figure as he stepped through the hole in the wall put there when Izuku had crashed through. The green haired inheritor once more shifted into his stance, green sparks and lines of energy rolling off of him as he felt his markings begin to glow beneath his clothes, Tempest humming in approval as he began a plan to put himself onto the offensive.

As the man yelled in excitement, his arm shooting forwards as he looked to make Izuku his target. Then, the cloaked fighter suddenly shifted from his previous position, dodging the counter from the man's left arm and actually landing on it, darting up to his shoulder before Stratus collided with the back of his head with a deafening **CRACK** and causing him to stumble forwards. This gave Izuku all the opportunity he needed as he followed through with the motion and flipped behind the man. Then, with the additional momentum, he slammed Tempest into the man's back with all the might his arms would allow, feeling the power build as he went through with the motion and sent the grotesque man flying straight through the building and into the air, almost feeling the manic grin that was likely spread across the man's lips as he righted himself in mid-air, preparing for a rough but stable landing.

Izuku looked down to his right and saw the others struggling to keep up with Tyrian, Yang missing her hook while Ren peppered the man's trail with bullets. Nora aimed dead-center at his chest as she swung Maginhild baseball bat style, only missing to the man's rather creepy flexibility, and got her legs taken out from under her with a well-placed sweeping kick, landing on her back with a thud as Tyrian lifted his now extended arm-blades and-

 **THUNK!**

Izuku quickly jumped from his perch overseeing the battle, his weapon buried up to the hilt in front of where the crazed man once stood. He then looked over to Jaune and shouted, "Green Ghost!"

Getting the cue, the blonde knight immediately summoned Lancelot's torso above his head, extending his blade as a platform for the green haired inheritor to land on. As his boots made contact with the massive weapon, he felt gravity shift as the torso spun around, gradually getting faster and faster as the wind kicked up, howling in his ears before finally, he was flung from the blade right at Tyrian, the man's eyes widening with surprise in the midst of his retreat. A perfect-

And then, seemingly out of nowhere, the masked man slammed into his side, the two of them sailing through the air until Izuku's back hit a wall with a painful impact, causing him to lose all the breath he'd held in his lungs as the man stood tall once again. Then, he drawled out in a hollow, feral voice, "We're not done yet, kid. YOU AIN'T FIGHTING ANYONE BUT ME RIGHT NOW!"

He heard the other call out to him as they continued to struggle against Tyrian, Shoto's ice and Yang's buckshot ever prevalent noises in the background as the crazed man continued to dodge all of their attacks and made seemingly perfect counters. He then felt the pressure against his chest begin to build, getting more and more painful with every passing second as the masked man pressed his fist deeper and deeper into her sternum. With a dexterous hand, Izuku felt for the pull of Tempest and grabbed onto it, pulling the weapon towards him with all the force he could apply, shifting it in mid-air as the masked man looked behind him, barely dodging the rather risky move that Izuku had just made as the scythe blade thudded into stone just a few inches away from his face.

"Heh. Nice move," the man commented as Izuku pulled the blade free, giving Tempest's scythe form a dexterous spin before holding it with a single hand, blade faced outwards, and prepared to launch himself at the man once again.

Then, out of the corner of his eye, he saw Tyrian blocking head on strikes from Nora, Yang, and Shoto; the heaviest hitters out of the entire group; simultaneously, with a... was that a scorpion tail?! He was blocking hits from all three of them, simultaneously, with nothing but his tail?!

Despite his overwhelming urge to run and assist them, Izuku currently had his hands full with the masked man in front of him, who slammed his hands down at where he'd once stood in a hammer style strike, indenting the ground as the green haired inheritor swung his scythe with both hands and managed to get the edge into the flesh of his shoulder, and, with a ferocity that Izuku didn't know he possessed, he dragged the weapon down the man's arm, causing blood to spurt out from the wound in a torrent of red as Tempest finished its arc, a readjusting flourish keeping the blade from being stained with blood.

Before the green-haired inheritor had a chance to process how much pain he may have just caused the man, in spite of the fact there was an abundant lack of a screaming, the man only laughed as the muscles regrew and stitched themselves back together, forming a complete arm once more as he readied himself to launch straight for Izuku.

 _Wait, how did that hit go straight through his aura? Does it have something to do with his semblance? Crap, I have no idea what-_

And then, a sudden impact from further away caught his attention. Ruby was under the foot of Tyrian, Crescent Rose entirely out of reach as the others rushed onwards, determined to get their friends free as the crazed man stared back, grinning with manic glee as he spread his arms wide, almost taunting them, 'Come and get me, if you dare.'

"Ruby!" Izuku yelled in sudden desperation, instinctually trying to make his way over and help her out from under Tyrian's foot. But that gave the masked man all the time he needed to launch himself forwards, his fist cocked back in what was likely the most powerful punch he had to offer.

"EYES ON ME, KID!" he bellowed as his fist plowed forwards, time itself seeming to slow as Process flashed in front of him and started working overtime, trying to find some way that Izuku could avoid this strike-

 **CRACK!**

 **CLANG!**

Suddenly, the masked man had skidded to a halt thirty feet away from him, and Tyrian was now off of Ruby, his face warped in an expression that seemed to be a mixture of anger and... excitement? And standing in front of Ruby, weapon drawn and cape flapping in the breeze...

"Qrow Branwen. As I live and breathe! A true huntsman has entered the fray."

The red-eyed reaper stayed silent as he gave his own weapon a flourish and stared down the razed man, though his attention had not yet left the masked blonde who Izuku had been fighting for a while. Then, in a tone that sent fearful chills up Izuku's spine, Qrow responded, "Look, pal, I don't know who the hell you are, but I do know who you're working for. If you want to get away without being harmed, I suggest you leave. Now."

The man's grip on Harbinger tightened ever so slightly as he waited for a response, telling Izuku and the others, "Sorry I was late. I had to take care of that backup they brought with 'em."

"... you carved your way through all twenty-five? Heheheh. Gooood..." Tyrian said as his grin widened even further, almost seeming to break and warp the confines of his own lips as he crouched low to the ground-

An impact against his torso interrupted his spectating of the fight between Qrow and Tyrian, and sent him flying upwards at speeds he didn't think were possible. The masked man then rose to his height in the air, a maniacal smile practically bleeding through his voice as he said, "This place is getting too crowded for my purposes. What say you and I take this elsewhere!"

Try as Izuku may have, there was simply no avoiding the next blow, hitting him straight in the chest and sending him rocketing towards the trees, the hit itself being so strong that he couldn't straighten his spine and redirect himself. Not this time.

 _(meanwhile, the Schnee family manor, Tenya's POV)_

The wait outside of their friend's room was going on for far too long. The worry was honestly beginning to get to him. Jacque had looked furious when he dragged Weiss away from the hall, and the two had been in her room for a rather uncomfortable amount of time.

Momo was leaning against the wall as she tapped her foot in an impatient rhythm, her ever watchful butler, Walter, standing at her side, his own hands clasped behind his back as they waited. Tenya himself was actively resisting the urge to tap against the armrest of his wheelchair, move away from the door to calm down, and stand up, kick the door down, and hand that snooty old man his own words on a silver platter and shove them down his throat, all at the same time.

"How long have they been in there?" he heard the youngest of the Schnees ask, though his tone of voice would only suggest curiosity and nothing of actual concern. As Tenya turned to face the boy, however, he saw that Whitley's eyes told a different story. No matter which stone face the boy placed on, he could never quite keep his feelings out of his eyes. There was a reason that the 'window to the soul' analogy was so popular throughout Remnant.

"Long enough to have us worried," Momo answered, her eyes boring holes into the floor as the tapping of her feet quickened in pace. Whitley simply nodded at that, as though he wasn't worried out of his own skull, stepping in front of the door to the room and planting himself there. Waiting. Listening.

After a few more short minutes, their collective worry was brought to an end as Jacque opened the door to Weiss's room, a smug smile on his face as they snapped to attention, Momo holding herself back as she held her clenched fist behind her back as Tenya held his tongue and the many, many choice words behind it.

Whitley himself remained stone-faced as he ever was, giving his father nothing but the son he'd always wanted. But as Jacque leaned over and whispered in his ear, the boy's mask, for just a brief moment, cracked and fell away, to be replaced by a look of complete surprise and shock.

But it was for only a moment, and the stoneface mask came back once again another moment later. Jacque then lifted himself to his full height, straightened his suit, and looked to Momo and Tenya with a smug look of victory on his face as he said, "I'd give her a while, if I were you. She's... processing the news."

And then, he strutted down the hall like an Oumdamned peacock, deliberately bumping shoulders with Walter as he passed down the hall, the echo of his designer shoes the only thing to break the silence until they faded down the hall and around a corner.

"Whitley... what did he say?" Tenya asked firmly.

"He said... I am to become the new heir of the company. Weiss's mental state is too fragile to properly run it. She is to... remain here. In the manor. Where she can be kept safe..." Whitley said as his voice began to slip cracking mid-sentence as he struggled to keep his composure and remain the perfect son.

But he shook his head and, after looking into his sister's room for a few seconds, turned heel and went after his father, his own shoes creating a similar, though lighter, echo against the cold floor. Neither Tenya nor Momo made any move to stop him.

Instead, the two tentatively made their way into their friend's room. The lights were out, the only source of it being the pale moonlight the spilled into the room through the window, as Weiss laid face down on her bed, the faintest beats of sobs escaping her lips as she tried, and somewhat failed, to control her shaking. She looked... utterly defeated. In all of the time that Tenya had known the platinum-haired girl, never once was the word defeat something he associated with her.

Momo sat down next to her, carefully, giving her just enough room to move away if she felt the need. Tenya suddenly felt as though he were intruding, and moved away from the bed, though he kept the two within his line of sight just in case. Walter had entered the room as well, standing just off to his left as the moonlight glinted off of his monocle, his only uncovered eye filled with concern for both his master and her friend.

"I... will she be alright?" Tenya asked. He knew it was a stupid question, one to not be bothered asking, but damnit, he couldn't bear to see a friend suffering and not be able to do... anything!

After a few seconds of silence, the monocled man answered, "I _would_ say something to reassure you, to give peace of mind. But I also know that such a sugarcoated answer would only enrage you. The truth is... I am not entirely sure myself. I never am. But I've known Weiss Schnee since she and my master first shook hands. She might not be the strongest. She might not know all that she must. But there's one thing I've seen of that girl time and time again, no matter how difficult the challenge.

"Her will to go on, her drive to succeed, to become better... it's honestly something I envy greatly."

As he finished, Weiss slowly lifted herself from the floor and rubbed the rest of the tears from her eyes, her sclera puffy and red as she marched her way over to the window and closed the blinds, darkening the room even further. Momo, seeming to know what her friend was doing, began moving the bed to one of the further edges of the room, Walter himself walking over and placing a single hand on the frame and giving it a light push.

This appeared to be all he needed to do, as the bed suddenly shifted to the correct angle. Momo gave her servant a mock glare as the man simply gave his signature wry smile in turn. She soon returned the gesture as Weiss placed Myrtenaster's case onto a marble bench and opened it, taking the weapon from its holding place as she prepared to do... well, train, what else would she bring it out for?

"I need to leave Atlas. We _all_ need to leave Atlas. There's just nothing we can do here right now," Weiss said as she turned to them. "I hope we won't have to fight, but we may have to. At the very least, we should prepare for the possibility. Momo. Tenya. Walter. Care to join me in training?"

Momo simply chuckled as she reached towards her left shoulder, a plain, faultless steel pole emerging from it, removing it from where it emerged and twirling it around before planting on the floor with a dull thud. "Of course. It's been a while since we've had a proper spar, after all."

Walter then stepped forth, saying, "I may be well past my prime, but I will do what I can to assist you," as wires sprouted from the tips of his fingers, glinting in what little moonlight still found its way into the room.

Tenya sighed to himself and braced for everyone's reaction as he too replied, "Well, I can't very well back out when everyone else has volunteered like this. Besides..."

And then, with unsteady strength, he pushed himself up and out of his wheelchair, every muscle in his legs burning with effort as he finally, for the first time in months, rose to his full height, his signature smile donning his face. "I've been wanting to test these out for a while now."

.

..

…

"... I should've told you all about this earlier," Tenya said as he awaited someone to yell out in surprise. Luckily, no one did, so he was left to sigh and ask, "I assume you want an explanation?"

Simple nods were all he received as his legs got used to the tension, allowing him to stand steady as he began telling them of the rigorous therapy he underwent. And the limitations of his new limbs.

 _(Shoto's POV)_

It was not a good day for Shoto Todoroki, or the rest of his team. His partner had just been punched over the horizon by a hulking beast of a fighter, the rest of them were currently being held at bay by a single guy who was _way_ too experienced in fighting groups, and... wait, where the hell was Yang?!

As soon as he had that thought, his attention was then drawn to the distinct shots of Ember Celica as Yang raced across the horizon faster than he could process, desperately chasing after Izuku and whoever his masked opponent was, a faint bit of golden shimmer lighting her hair alight ever so slightly.

"You damn blonde! Get back here!" Tyrian hollered as he suddenly launched himself towards Yang, only to be intercepted by Qrow and knocked straight back into the ground. The man gave a feral glare to the red-eyed reaper, but this look of anger quickly warped back into one of excitement as he continued, "You know what? This is fine. I can take you on _and_ make sure that fool does his job. I'll just have to sweep you aside first!"

And then, before anyone else in their group could try to go after Izuku and Yang, the two combatants in the center of Oniyuri clashed for the first time, steel biting steel as their meeting caused cracks to form in the ground around them. But something seemed... different from the last time that Shoto had seen Qrow fight. There was something... tangibly tense in the air, like he was...

He heard Ruby begin to raise Crescent Rose in an attempt to assist her uncle. An understandable action, given how close they were. But still, he placed his hand on the rose-themed reaper's weapon and angled it down once more. When he heard a retort begin to leave her lips, he immediately silenced her saying, "If you want this to end well, _do not do anything_ , no matter what happens. If we try to help, we'll just get caught in the crossfire."

"But-"

Any further argument she had against this point was immediately silenced by the fact that the two had broken off and their attacks were starting to damage the town by proxy. Buildings cracked and creaked under the added strain, debris was flung this way and that, and yet none of it made its way to the group. This was a fight between two incredibly powerful people; people who even Shoto, to his own admission, couldn't even hope to yet match.

When the two met once more for yet another clash, there was an echo that tore through their hearing, and a blast of wind that actually pushed them back a few feet. Off in the distance, a large chunk of a particularly high roof was suddenly cut loose from the sheer force of Qrow's strike.

Their fight soon continued, and as it did so, Shoto's mind began to race. Okay, there was nothing he and Ruby could really do without getting directly involved in the fight. He wasn't confident in his ability to control his left side, and even though the same could not be said of his right, his blasts would probably just get in the way more than anything: Tyrian had proved that he was more than agile enough to dodge them. An ice wall, maybe? No, he'd just go right over that, he'd make sure of it.

"Jaune, what's Lancelot's range right now?" he asked the blonde knight, not wishing to abandon Izuku and Yang to fight that monster of a combatant alone.

"Not long enough to be any real help," Jaune admitted with frustration.

Okay, this was bad. They were utterly outclassed. None of them were fast enough to get out of there and help their friends while the fight was still raging on; not even Ruby; he didn't know Ren's semblance, and Nora might've been the tank, but she was on her last legs.

The only real option he could see was... well, it was risky, to put it very, very mildly, he wasn't really sure if he should-

His train of thought was interrupted once again when Harbinger was suddenly wrenched from Qrow's grasp and flung into a nearby wall by Tyrian's tail, causing the faunus to give a maniacal cackle as he celebrated his seeming victory. It was also during this lapse in judgment that Qrow rolled his eyes and cracked Tyrian across the face, sending him flying across their battlefield and straight into a wall.

"But... no, you're meant to be-"

"If you really think I'm useless without a weapon, you clearly only know who I am by reputation. Getting caught in one too many barfights teaches you a thing or two about how to throw a punch," Qrow said as he walked over to Harbinger and pulled it free of the wall it was flung into. "Salem's standards must be pretty low if _you're_ the best she sent out."

 _That_ seemed to piss Tyrian off to the point of seething hatred, his eyes changing to a sinister violet as he readied himself to launch...

… and then, Shoto found Ruby on what would be the receiving end of a haymaker, with the man's blades drawn and his eyes frenzied. Crap, he couldn't get there in time and his ice wasn't fast enough and-

Suddenly, before he could even begin to counterattack, even with all the haste he felt, Qrow appeared in front of his niece, and taking the brunt of the blow as all the air in his lungs was expelled, barely stopping himself from being flung into the opposite end of the town.

It was upon seeing this that Shoto's instincts took over, drawing both of his blades in unison and letting loose a pillar of spiraling flame straight towards the scorpion faunus, causing him to dodge backward as he then leapt up to the corner of a roof, the front of his clothing singed from the attack. He actually brought up one of his hands to cradle it, his surprised glare turning once more into that signature, wicked smile. "Well, well, well... it seems I should've taken note of one more," before wincing in pain. "Damn. I do believe you cracked my ribs. An unusual pain...

"... but not unwelcome!"

Qrow clutched his own torso as he tried to stand, only to stumble and nearly fall to the ground. "Damnit. How the hell did he get past my Aura?"

"A question for you to ponder until our next meeting, my good hunter! For now, let us call this a draw, loathe though I am to call it such. But make no mistake...

"I shall return. Both for the girl... and for you."

And then, as quickly as he had appeared, Tyrian was gone, leaving nothing but an empty battlefield and wounds to heal from.

"We need to go after Izuku and Yang!" Shoto shouted almost immediately, preparing to make his way over to them before a hand on his arm stopped him.

"You... won't... find them... in time..." Qrow said through pained breaths as he toppled over once again, caught by his niece as he continued, "Too... far-"

"Easy there," Jaune said to the man as they laid him down, pulling what gauze they could from their bags and starting the bindings for his ribs. Qrow winced as the pain prickled under his skin

"What are you talking about?" Shoto asked with urgency, wanting to go right after them with all the speed he possessed.

"Who the hell was that guy?" Nora then continued.

"Why are people after me and Izuku?" Ruby finished. Ren simply remained silent, a look of caution upon his face as he held Storm Flower close, the barrels trained on the horizon, in case anyone else decided to get the drop on them. Jaune continued his work on binding Qrow's torso as firmly as he could.

"Calm-urgh! Calm down. They're probably... miles away by now. Even if we could-agh! Catch up... to them... we wouldn't be able to help," Qrow explained as Jaune finished with the bandages.

"But-"

"I-erg! I get why you... want to go after them. Hell, if my ribs weren't... broken... I'd probably join you. But... knowing how Greenie operates... he's probably gonna go off on his own for a while. Split... their attention."

"That sounds exactly like him, but-"

"Yang just... went after him... right? She's not going to let him go on his own... not entirely. Those two... against that masked bastard? My money's... on them. I know it's not an ideal situation, but... this is all we can do right now. Have faith in them. They'll make it. I know it."

"But Uncle Qrow... why are people after us?" Ruby asked again.

Qrow let out a heavy sigh as he once more adjusted to the pain and looked up at them, his eyes giving away a reluctant decision as he looked back to his niece and asked in the most serious tone Shoto had ever heard him speak with, "What's your favorite fairy tale?"

 _(meanwhile, somewhere in the woods of Mistral, Izuku's POV)_

A crack of his boots got him out of the way another swing of the hulking man in the mask, smashing into a nearby tree and causing it to topple to the ground with a loud crash. He felt the ground beneath his feet as he skidded to a halt, the trees encircling them in an arena of sorts as their standoff continued once again, the masked man bringing his hands behind him once again as he waited for the first move.

Leaves fell from the trees like twisting, airborne raindrops, giving the pause to their battle yet more tension than was already present. The masked blonde then began yet another tangent.

"C'mon, kid. I know you can do a lot more than dodge me," the man said as he gestured to a mark on his arm that was quickly repaired by a new mass of muscle. "You haven't fired anything off in a while. What gives?"

"That was the point. After you launched me through the air, I dragged you further and further away from Oniyuri. Now you wouldn't be able to back up your partner even if you decided to go there full-speed," Izuku revealed as he gripped Tempest tightly in both hands. "I haven't really had a lot of chances to use this level of power. Mainly because it's risky with too many people around."

Then, the force he felt from his body began to multiply, putting further strain on his limbs as Tempest, in turn, began to glow with power, the markings on his body following suit as the energy sparked through his entire build. "But... in a place like this? I don't have to worry about putting anyone else in danger."

 _Full Cowl... 23%!_

Izuku then shot off like a bullet, appearing right in front of the massive man with his blade poised to strike. With a mighty swing, he heaved the edge of his sword into the man's raised arm, meeting with a howl of wind and dull impact, a clash ensuing between the combatants as the ground beneath them began to rumble. Their feet left deep indentions in the dirt as they both pushed forward with all the might their bodies would allow, a bellowing gust of wind kicking up and scattering around them, the tree branches shaking wildly in response.

But this wouldn't hold for long. This was the first time he'd really used more than fifteen percent of his power in combat. He had to find an opening and end this fast. Using this much power for any longer than a few more seconds would probably start to actually break his bones.

The green haired inheritor then enacted his plan. First, he placed himself lower, closer to the ground, and let go of Tempest's handle, allowing the man's momentum to carry him forwards and place himself off balance. Then, Izuku stepped further inwards, well within the minimum safe distance of the massive man's striking range: where his arms, enlarged as they were, could not touch him. Finally, reaching out behind him, he wrapped his fingers around his weapon's handle once again, bringing it forwards as the arc continued straight towards the man's stomach, where he was currently the most vulnerable.

And then came the impact. With a loud, dull thud, and all the strength he could muster, Izuku grit hit teeth together as he put his full weight into the strike, feeling his front foot dig deeper into the dirt as he finished it, sweeping the man right off of his feet and sending him straight towards a tree in the distance as he felt the sudden boost of power leave him, finally letting himself pant incessantly, without rhyme or rhythm.

He tried to stand to his full height, but a sudden pain just above his heel stopped him from doing so. Crap. Had he strained his ankle? That was going to take a while to heal, even with Aura.

"*COUGH**COUGH**HACK* … nice move, kid."

… _no... no way... that was everything I had..._

"Oumdamn, that actually hurt," the man said as he lifted himself further from the ground, standing once more to his full height, now with a large, horizontal gash spread across his stomach. "And I wasn't even getting serious."

 _You're kidding me... he had me on the ropes the entire fight... and he was only toying-_

Before his train of thought could continue, Izuku was suddenly blindsided when the man suddenly appeared before him, driving his fist straight towards his torso, colliding with it with a cavernous **BOOM**.

The pain was far too great and came far too fast. It almost reminded him of the times where he'd used too much of One for All at once, only this time there was no adrenaline to fully dull the pain. He felt every movement, every shift, every pin and needle of agony from that single hit. He wasn't sent flying; his feet had planted themselves so deeply into the ground that they were leaving deep indentions; but for a few moments he wished he was. Maybe it would distract from the overwhelming pain.

Several of his ribs were most likely cracked, if not outright broken or fractured. Either way, Izuku was completely out of breath, and subsequently collapsed to his knees. It was all he could do to keep his torso as still as he could, to not make things worse than they already were.

"You're stronger than you look. Good..." the masked man said. "Since you've somewhat earned my respect, I'll let you in on a little something. My semblance lets me directly convert my aura into pure muscle mass. And my aura is so dense that it can't even be contained by my own skin. In other words...

"YOU'RE THE INFERIOR VERSION OF ME!"

Then, his arms almost doubled in their size, easily looking as though they could snap through a tree trunk like dry twigs. There was no way out of this... no, there had to be a way out of this! There had to be!

"FACE IT, KID! YOU FOUGHT WELL, BUT THIS IS WHERE YOU DIE!" the man yelled with his hands raised defiantly above his head, ready to deliver a final, deadly hammer-strike-

 **KABOOM!**

But his blow never landed, and his face instead jerked to his right as a golden gauntlet collided with his cheek, sending him spiraling once more into another massive tree. The blonde brawler then rolled in front of him, standing in a ready stance as her gauntlet cocked back and let out an empty buckshot shell. The silence continued for several moments, lying over the battlefield like a cloud of low-hanging mist.

And then, the masked man leapt to a larger tree branch, looking down at Yang with what seemed to be disgust. "Urgh. Damnit. Can't you all just leave well enough alone?! We were in the middle of a fight!"

She said nothing, however, only further preparing herself for a counter attack. The tension brewed and boiled, until-

"*Sigh* Fine. You get your way just this once," the man said as he loosened himself from his combat stance. "If I try to get through both of you, I can't guarantee either of you will get out alive. As much as I really don't care about that, braids 'll probably kill me if I do. So, I'll call it a draw.

" **For now."**

Then, he reached up to his face and removed his mask, revealing it for all the world. His eyes were narrow, his pupils small, but they had a distinct crimson ring within them. At least, that would be if he still had both of his eyes. The right side of his face was entirely fine, but the left... instead of skin, there was intense scarring, moreso than anything Izuku had ever seen or experienced; and he had taken his fair share of beatdowns, his scars told that story. And what was held in the socket instead was honestly terrifying all on its own. A small, beady dot held within the clawed grasp of his sclera.

"Remember this face, kid, and the name that accompanies it. I am Muscular. And I _will_ be back to finish this fight of ours. And when I do..." he held up another, different eye next to the left side of his face: a wide, blood-red circle encasing a massive hole of a pupil. "... I sincerely hope that _this_ eye is the last thing you ever see."

And then, with a loud crack, and a brief howl of the wind, Muscular was gone, the branch beneath his feet landing on the ground with a crash.

Then, when yang knew it was safe, she snapped backward and threw down her pack, kneeling down next to Izuku as she quickly bound his torso with the supplies she had, all the while distracting him from the pain, whispering to him as he grunted and whimpered, trying his best to keep silent. Oum, it was painful.

He wasn't sure how much time had passed once she was done binding his torso, but judging from the sigh of relief she let out, Yang felt it took far too long.

"Are... do you have anything else I can help with?" she asked.

"Strained ankle. I'll have to let that heal for today. Thanks for binding my ribs," he replied as he lightly touched his lower torso. "I would've taken way too long to do the same. Would've been a lot more painful too."

"No need! I'm just... I'm glad you're okay," Yang said with a smile.

.

..

…

"... Yang... you should head back to the others."

…

"... why?" She sounded genuinely hurt as she asked that.

"Because that guy's only after me, no one else. If I have to split away from you guys so I can make your odds against Tyrian better, so be it," Izuku said, defying every fiber that told him to spill, to come clean.

"... this is 'cause of what Tyrian spouted off, isn't it?" Yang asked as the gears turned in her brain.

"... yeah. It is," Izuku replied as he distracted himself with the battle-worn ground beneath them.

"But... why are they after you in the first place?"

"I wish I could tell you. I really do. But... I just... it could put you in even more danger, and I don't want to do that to you," he said, his voice shaking.

"Izuku, the danger is already here! Don't we deserve the basics at the very least?"

"I... I don't know what to do!"

"That's okay. Look, you don't have to tell me everything all at once. Take it at your own pace, just-"

"I can't lose you again!" he suddenly yelled, tears lining his eyes. The fear from all those months ago had resurfaced, and he couldn't let what happened back then happen again.

…

"... what?" Yang asked in disbelief.

Fighting through the tears and the sobs, Izuku elaborated as best he could. "... I... when I saw... back at Beacon, when I saw... I thought you were _gone._ For a few seconds, I thought you were gone and you weren't coming back and I-"

Izuku lost his voice after that. For several seconds, the silence went on. Then, slowly, Yang took his head into her hands and placed him against her shoulder, rocking him ever so slightly as she tried her best to reassure him. "It's okay. I'm right here. I am right here. You're not gonna lose me. And I'm not gonna lose you either."

Izuku pulled his head back to see her face, noticing that tears had started to form in her eyes. "Like it or not, I'm not letting you go alone. Our team needs you to stay alive. Jaune needs you alive. Shoto needs you alive. Ruby needs you alive. I- … _I_ need you alive. Okay?"

"... okay."

 **A/N: Aaaaand that's a wrap for this one! Wow, that took a lot longer to write than I wanted it to. Well, with finals coming up for me, I don't think I'll be able to post the next chapter for a while. Also, HOLY SHIT, ENDGAME IS ACTUALLY HERE! Wow. I cannot think of a more wonderful time to be alive. I've heard an analogy that the MCU is this generation's Star Wars, and I honestly couldn't agree more. Here's to a great ten years of Marvel! And now:**

 **Review Responses:**

 **Guest 1: Yup! I hope I did him justice here. And... well, as you can see by their current situation, the full discussion might have to wait a bit.**

 **Thunder Dragon: They most certainly did! And yes, I have always shipped them. That's not to say I hate Geralt being with Yennefer or anything (hell, I think ship wars are inherently stupid most of the time), but I personally prefer Triss.**

 **Enku: Yeah. They've gotta wait for that.**

 **KingKong94: Yeah. I mean, hopefully Yang can help him out, but he will have to resolve his problems himself. And thank you! I hope to get many more!**

 **Leviathan's Heir: Hmm... I'd give it a 3.5. 1 would be a mild argument, and 5 would probably be 'someone's life depends on the outcome.'**

 **Kaiser Dragon: True, but that's a lesson he'll have to learn later, as you can see from the fact that he's separated from his team sans Yang at the moment.**

 **Odin's Eye: Hope you enjoyed the fights!**

 **King Ceasar Jr: They'll be talking for a while. They will come to a better understanding, but it will take time.**

 **Black Fang: Thank YOU!**

 **Gojifreak: They'll start to figure things out by the next one. Not quite everything, but basically everything they learned in the show.**

 **Uruk-Hai: Hope you enjoyed that part of the chapter!**

 **Guest 2: Thanks! And yeah, that thought honestly terrifies me too. Let's hope such a day never comes to pass in the canon. Also, they're not strictly a faunus tribe, though they were certainly faunus in the tribe.**

 **Guest 3: Yeah, I have a tendency to run my mouth whenever I'm stressed or angry. I've tried to pull it back a bit more, but I can't make any guarantees.**

 **And now, an experiment:**

 **Disclaimer: I do not own the song sung below. It is the property of Rooster Teeth and Miles Luna. Please support the official release.**

Omake: Around a Campfire (Canon, 1 month before Fonsett)

"Hey... so... I know this one song," Jaune said as he brought forth his guitar, the one that they hadn't seen him play for months on end. The silence that had encompassed them while they'd eaten had chipped away at the blonde knight ever so slowly, until he couldn't take it anymore. He could still remember the song. Maybe it would make some people laugh. Or just be a bit of a distraction for a little while.

"You're free to play it," Shoto said as Ren nodded in turn. The other gave their own form of support, but it was clear that they didn't want to listen to it. But still, Jaune persisted.

"Alright. Erm... just so you know, it's kinda corny. I learned it at this old summer camp I used to go to when I was ten. One of the counselors wouldn't stop singing it," Jaune said as he tuned his guitar.

"What happened to the camp?" Izuku asked.

"I honestly have no idea. Well... here goes..."

The blonde knight then cleared his throat, pressing his fingers to the strings as he took in a breath, and began his song.

"OHHHHH~  
"There's a place I know  
"That's tucked away;  
"A place where you and I can stay  
"Where we can go to laugh and play,  
"And have adventures every day!  
"I know it sounds hard to believe  
"But guys and gals it's true,  
"Camp Campbell is the place for me and you!

"We'll swim through lakes and climb up trees;  
"Catch fish, bugs, bears, and honeybees!  
"There's endless possibilities  
"And no,  
"That's not hyperbole!  
"Our motto's "CAMPE DIEM"  
"And that means I'm telling you~"

A breath as he prepared for the most difficult part of the song.

"We've got:  
"Archery,  
"Hiking,  
"Search & Rescue,  
"Biking,  
"Horseback,  
"Training that will save you from a heart attack,  
"Scuba diving,  
"Miming,  
"Keeping up with rhyming,  
"Football,  
"Limbo,  
"Science,  
"Stunting,  
"Pre-Calc,  
"Spaceships,  
"Treasure hunting,  
"Bomb defusal,  
"No refusal,  
"Fantasy,  
"Circus trapeze,  
"and Fights,  
"and Ghosts,  
"and Paints,  
"and Snakes,  
"and Knives,  
"and Chess,  
"and Dance,  
"and Weights–

"It's Camp Camp!"

Jaune took several deep breaths as he recovered from the song, the applause just as much as a surprise to him as the breathlessness he felt once he was done. Man, how long had it been since he'd done that song? Two years? Three? Either way, it was still enough to effectively kill his lungs.

"Awesome song, Jaune! It sounds like you went to one crazy summer camp," Nora said with an adventurous gleam in her eye. "Now I just want to get up and do something awesome! Ren! Assist me!"

"Nora, we just settled down..."

The collective laughter that ensued from the interaction was more than enough for Jaune to believe that singing that silly old song was worth it.

 **A/N: And that's it for the Omake! I hope you all enjoyed that. This might be something I do every now and then to help avoid burnout, so feel free to send me suggestions for different Omakes if you want me to. Be sure to let me know if you liked it!**

 **Next Chapter: May 17** **th**

 **Seeya in the next one!**


	51. Much Needed Talk

**A/N: Hey. Guess what? *AHEM***

 ***inhale***

 **.**

 **..**

…

 **OVER 200,000 VIEWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWS! YES! YES! THANK YOU ALL SO MUCH!**

 **Disclaimer: I do not own RWBY or My Hero Academia. They belong to Monty Oum, Kohei Horikoshi, and their respective publishing companies. Please support the official releases.**

 **I do not own the cover image**

Chapter 51: Much Needed Talk

Meditation was a key step in maintaining control over your emotions. Control your emotions, and you would be better able to adapt to your Berserker state. There was no "controlling" that part of yourself, not entirely. Sure, you could use it in a pinch. It might even save your life. But you should never, ever rely on it completely. If you can, only use its full power as an absolute last resort, and even then, do so with caution. It has the potential to overwhelm you should your concentration slip for even a moment.

That was the reason that Bakugo and Ghira had been sitting out here, legs crossed as they sat, breathing in harmonic rhythm, under the brutal light of the sun, for an Oumdamn hour. It was only the first day of this new regimen, and it was already starting to unnerve him. The ashen blonde direwolf hadn't been this still since the times he'd had to meditate on the ship, and even then he sometimes found it hard to stay still. He'd been doing this for four months! What was new about it?!

"You're slipping. Try to relax. I understand that you've been doing this repeatedly for the months you've been traveling, but that doesn't mean you should simply stop. It will be gradual, but the day will come when you do not have to meditate nearly as much to maintain a calmer mind. But for the moment, I recommend at least an hour of meditation, daily, without exception," Ghira explained as he sensed his pupil's distress.

"... yes, sensei," Bakugo replied reluctantly. He couldn't deny that the man was right. While the blonde direwolf was far better than he had been previously, he still had quite a bit of feral anger. At least, that's what it felt like lately. Sure, he had it somewhat under wraps and only got mildly annoyed at worst most of the time, but he did have his moments.

After another few minutes passed, with the sound of waves in their ears and the smell of the sea and fresh wood in the air, Ghira let out a big breath and rose from his spot on the ground. Sensing their current session was over, Bakugo rose up and joined him, stretching out his back, arms and legs before Ghira said, "Well, I do believe that was enough for today. Now then...

"What say we have a proper spar?" he asked with a benign smile. Bakugo internally smirked to himself. This was gonna be easy.

 _(a few minutes later, Belladonna household)_

 **CRACK!**

Bakugo's head snapped back once again as Ghira made a seemingly perfect counter with open palms to yet another one of his moves. Damnit! The massive guy hadn't even moved! Or tapped into his Berserker state! What the hell?! Why was nothing working?!

After they had gotten back to the house and entered the now cleared workout space, the two of them had struck a deal. If Bakugo could land a single, proper hit on him, they would move on to the more advanced set of moves. He was free to use as much Berserker power as he could reasonably manage as well as any training that his mother had instilled to him, but no semblance. While it was indeed powerful, he'd been using it as a crutch way too often, and Ghira wished to see what he was capable of without it.

And, if Bakugo failed to hit him, they'd start from the fundamentals and head upwards from there.

Ghira had thrown him to the mat within the first ten seconds and barely moved an inch. He was free to try as many times as he could; all he had to do was land a single blow. A task that now seemed nearly impossible.

The hulking man then shifted back into his counter stance, which at this point seemed to be damn near impregnable. A single hand outstretched, palm facing inward while the other remained at this side. Both remained open.

Bakugo dashed forwards once again, leaping into a wide kick that Ghira easily managed to sweep aside. However, the blonde direwolf had prepared for this, using the additional momentum to rotate around and make another kick with his other leg, though this too was blocked by a quickly raised arm.

Bakugo couldn't resist the smile spreading across his face as he put the next part of his plan into action, hooking the edge of his foot around Ghira's arm and twisting his body in turn, placing himself right above the man's head as he prepared a brutal heel kick-

Before he could execute it, however, Ghira's large hand shot up and firmly grasped his foot, and only a half a second later swung him around and slammed him into the ground once again, causing him to bounce once, twice, and land roughly on his hands and feet, digging his fingers into the floor.

"... well, I think that's enough of that, don't you?" Ghira said as he shifted out of his stance. "Come here, Katsuki. You'll need a few minutes to breathe after that."

As much as he hated to admit it, the panther faunus was right on the money. That beatdown was... well, quite frankly, a complete and total beatdown. He could feel where the bruises would be through his aura. Ghira was really good at giving out counters. _Insanely_ good. It seemed to be a specialty of his.

Reluctantly, he took a seat next to Ghira as he slowly resigned to the fact that he was going to have to go over the fundamentals all over again. Oumdamnit.

"I know you're frustrated, young Katsuki; but don't be discouraged by these losses. Try to not think of them as such, and look at them instead as opportunities," Ghira said, doing the best he could to encourage the wrathful blonde.

"For what?" Bakugo asked.

"Improvement. Hopefully," Ghira responded. "You're a great fighter with an instinct that many never achieve with a lifetime's worth of effort. But that's not enough to carry through everything you'll likely have to face. And your semblance, while powerful, has been a primary asset for you throughout much of your life. I assume you discovered it around middle school. Thus, you've become too reliant on it. Try not to think of it as a solution to every situation. Instead, think of it as a tool. Not a be-all, end-all solution for everything, but something that, when used with enough imagination, could be more useful than everything else at your disposal.

"The same could be said of your Berserker powers. I will not claim that they are benevolent by any means. However, I also can't say that it's entirely malicious either. They are primal sources of power, and you can be overwhelmed by them. But given time, patience, and the training of a calm mind and a sound body, it too can become a powerful tool," the massive man finished explaining.

"... I suppose that's one way of looking at it," Bakugo said as he looked down at his heavily calloused hands. "But... I dunno. I'm not sure I'd be able to really think of this as a tool."

"... ah. I see, then. Your aura was unlocked early as a child?" Ghira asked, now having a better understanding of how much Bakugo's semblance really meant to him.

"Yeah. The old hag said it was because Berserker signs could show up pretty early in life and wanted me to at least have some way of healing if they showed up when she wasn't around. And then I unlocked my semblance... early. _Really_ fucking early. Since then... it's felt like if I didn't try to use it on a regular basis, it would be like... denying part of myself. Hell, even when we were on the ship, I at least took the time to make a few sparks every now and then. Maybe even a brief bomb, if I felt the need. And..."

"And you're so afraid of this new, foreign power that you didn't know you had that you'd rather avoid it altogether. You don't know how to handle it," Ghira said.

"... no, no, that's not it," the blonde direwolf denied. "I just don't like losing control of my own body for minutes on end. If I'm going to beat the ever-loving shit out of someone, I'd rather be doing it myself instead of letting some 'primal force' do it for me."

"... forgive my bluntness, but I must ask again. Answer me honestly... you _are_ afraid of it, aren't you?" Ghira asked with the most serious tone that Bakugo had ever heard him use.

The blonde was perplexed by this question. He'd never really been afraid of much other than the reasonable things: a painful demise, depths, those freaky gigantic spider Grimm that he would never admit still gave him in nightmares to this day, etc. But his Berserker powers... oh. _That_ was what he meant.

"... yeah," he responded after several long seconds of silence. "I just... I don't really know enough about them not to be."

"Good," Ghira said, causing Bakugo to snap his head towards him in disbelief. How could fear of this power be anything but a hinderance?!

As if sensing his distress, Ghira then continued, "It means you're not arrogant enough to believe that this force can be tamed through sheer willpower alone. At least, not any longer, from what Blake, Sun and Neo have told me."

Bakugo honestly couldn't be mad at them for that. He had been pretty arrogant back then. Probably still was now, even though it was to a lesser degree. However, that didn't mean he wasn't going to hunt them down later and spar every single one of them to get this annoyance out of his system.

Then, a thought occurred to him.

"Hey, Ghira?"

"Mm?"

"Since you're a Berserker... and this is genetic... what about Blake? Is she one of us too?"

.

..

…

The silence lasted for several achingly long moments, to the point that it was actually getting a bit uncomfortable. But, after a few more seconds of contemplation, Ghira sighed to himself, relenting to the question. He answered, "... I would give you an honest answer if I could, but that question currently doesn't have one. My daughter is strong willed, steadfast, and caring. Were we in different times, she would have made an excellent Berserker.

"...but these are not different times. I truly hope that she does not become one. Now, I believe it would only hinder her. She doesn't need this on top of everything else."

Bakugo wanted to disagree. He didn't know Blake well, but he knew that if anyone could control and master these powers better than he ever could, it would probably be her. But then, of course, he remembered the history of the Berserkers. The blood, the fighting... the ones who went feral. That kind of pressure, on top of trying to recover from everything else that had happened... he suddenly found himself agreeing with Ghira's answer.

"Well, now that that's out of the way... let's get back to training. From the fundamentals," Ghira said as he stood, a sly smile making its way ever so slightly across his lips.

"... right."

 _(meanwhile, somewhere in Anima, Shoto's POV)_

Well... that was... a whole hell of a lot to take in. Apparently, the Seasonal Maidens were real, the current Fall Maiden was the person who'd shot Pyrrha dead through the chest, there was a Grimm queen named Salem, and there was a secret organization working behind the scenes of the kingdom in order to stop threats from her before they ever arrived. At least, as much as they could. After that, it would usually fall to the hunters to do their best to quell the threats before negativity got out of hand.

At least, that was the basic gist of what Qrow had just told them.

"... you're kidding me, right? No questions?" he asked in genuine surprise. "C'mon. You could at least give me a 'this can't be real, can it?' That one always seems to come up."

"We do have questions. But this is... Oum, this is a lot to process," Jaune said as he rubbed his head to dull what was likely a suddenly spawning headache.

"Take as long as you have to. I was pretty shocked when I learned most of this stuff," Qrow said in understanding.

"So... how exactly do the Maiden powers... work?" Nora asked. An understandable question, given that Qrow had really only given them the most basic of the basics. At least, that's what Shoto was inferring.

"Well... they essentially reincarnate. Not in a typical 'rebirth' sense, though. The first candidate for reincarnation is the last person in a Maiden's thoughts. But, if it's a guy, or some old crone, the power will go to a random young woman under the age of... about thirty-five or so. It's unnecessarily complicated, and annoying as hell to keep track of. I'd go into more detail, but that was the simple version and we don't exactly have all night.

"Now, on to the actual powers. I _want_ to say that they essentially have what most people would describe as 'real magic,' and that it's far more powerful than most semblances. Which isn't exactly wrong. But that's oversimplifying things. Each Maiden's powers are tied to one of the four primary aspects of humanity, and though they might share some similarities, their powers do differ in some key ways," Qrow explained.

"How, exactly?" Shoto asked.

"As an example... let's take into account the last two Fall Maidens. Amber was powerful. I daresay she was one of the most powerful Maidens that this world has ever seen. As the Fall Maiden, she was connected to the aspect of Choice. Due to a number of circumstances and a deep attachment to the place she was born, she was given the ability to control storms of all kinds. Amber could command a blizzard in a desert, a hurricane in the arctic, and a sandstorm in a forest. She was particularly fond of thunderstorms. And despite that, she had one of the biggest hearts that I've ever seen someone possess. But... raw power can't make up for a lack of experience, no matter how potent.

"Cinder was no slouch either. But her power primarily revolved around glass, its formation, and its application. And fire. Lots and lots of fire. I never saw much of her, but what little I did see made it clear she was... volatile. She definitely had a lot of hatred brewing in her," Qrow said as he briefly gave off a slight shudder. "It freaks me the fuck out just thinking about it."

"Wait... what are these 'aspects of humanity' you keep talking about? And what do they have to do with those people who were after us earlier? Why..." Ruby asked in quick succession, faltering at the last question she wanted to ask. But still, she pushed through. "... why are they after Izuku?"

"And Ruby, too," Ren said. "Don't give me that look. Tyrian called you a Silver-Eyed Warrior. I think we at least deserve to know why they're after you, too."

"Erm... geez, that's a lot of questions," Qrow said as he rubbed his forehead with his first three fingers. "Okay. But, in order to explain that... you're gonna need more context."

"This is a lot to remember," Nora noted with some dread.

"I know. One of the reasons I quit teaching," the red-eyed reaper commented as he began to regale them with a tale of brothers. Godly ones, to be precise. The elder, of light, creation, and life. The younger, of darkness, destruction, and death. Their beginning, which gave them purpose. Their quarrels, which spawned the Grimm. And eventually, their understanding. From that understanding, came humanity, and the four gifts bestowed upon them, embodied in four relics that they left behind before the brothers departed Remnant.

The Lamp of Knowledge. The power to think, to learn, and to question.

The Scepter of Creation. The power to make, to give, and to express.

The Sword of Destruction. The power to raze, to take, and to kill.

The Crown of Choice. The power to wander, to contemplate, and to be content.

It's said that these four relics, together, could reshape the face of Remnant as they know it. Whether for the better... or for the worse.

"Is that why the huntsman academies were created in the first place?" Shoto asked. It was an obvious inquiry, now that he had this information. Four schools, four relics. The four safest places on Remnant. Until recently, that was.

"You catch on quick," Qrow commented. "But yeah. That's the simple version of it. The hope was that they'd be kept under constant guard, and keep humanity from using these relics against themselves. But... well, you all know that plan's shot now. Luckily, Oz made the Crown particularly hard to find."

"Why that one? Why not the others?" Jaune asked curtly.

"Because of all the relics under our guard, that one is by far the most powerful. If it fell into the wrong hands, I guarantee that by now, Vale would've been wiped off the face of the planet," Qrow answered.

...

"... that's... one of our questions answered," Ruby said with briefly widened eyes.

"Right. On to the next one," Qrow said as he stretched his left arm above his head, wincing when he went too far and shifted his bindings.

"Careful. We won't have enough gauze to redo this until we get to Athens," Jaune said as he readjusted the red-eyed reaper's bindings.

"... thanks, blondie," Qrow said. "Anyway, those two, earlier? They work for Salem. And while I personally don't know much about her, what's basically common knowledge among those who know is that she... well, this sounds cheesy as hell, but she essentially wants to destroy _**everything**_. And I don't mean the cartoon villain, 'I'm going to destroy the world' plot that always gets stopped in the end. No. She's relentless. It's all she seems to want. She's been waiting for humanity to start splitting at the seams for years, waiting for the right time to give it a push in the wrong direction. Watching. Waiting. Listening. And now, the seams are starting to fray.

"She desires to see all in this world perish in the most painful, efficiently miserable way possible. And then, when our spirits are broken and we think that there's nothing more to live for... that is when she'll take it all away. It's all she wants. She's the Queen of the Grimm, after all. And she, like the Grimm, desire few things but these. Death. Destruction. Misery. And Oblivion.

"And the reason they're after you, Ruby... well, not many people know about Silver-Eyed Warriors. For a simple explanation, they can essentially evaporate the Grimm simply by looking at them. They're incredibly rare, and one who can use their powers at all, let alone control them, is even rarer. But the ones who do are either really happy you're alive and able to use your powers at all... or they want you dead," Qrow explained.

"But... Tyrian said they wanted me and Izuku alive. Why?" Ruby asked.

"I... that's..." Qrow said as he went back into thought. "... why... after everything, why the hell..."

"What is it?" Ren asked.

"... nothing. I hope," Qrow said.

"And what about Izuku?" Nora asked again. "Why are they after him?"

This time, the silence went on for so long that not even the slightest chirp of a cricket could be heard in the background. Qrow looked intently at his flask before shaking his head and putting it back into one of his inside pockets, then saying, "That... is something you'll have to ask him yourselves."

"But-"

"I know what I promised, but that's the only exception. I'm sorry, but I really only know the bare basics of Izuku's situation. Besides, this really is something that he needs to tell you himself. He could explain it way better than I could, and... it also involves some very personal stuff that he actually hasn't told a whole lot of people. As far as I know, at the very least," Qrow explained with a finality that Shoto had never heard him use before.

"I've also got a question," Jaune said, to which Qrow gave a welcome gesture. "Pyrrha. How was she involved in all of this?"

"... she was the primary candidate to become the next Fall Maiden. You see... Amber got attacked. Despite her power, she was completely outmatched and ended up having half of the Maiden's soul stolen from her. I barely managed to get there to stop the full process from completing. She was left in critical condition, and a potentially permanent comma. We got her into stasis as quickly as we could, but we all knew there was no real chance of a full recovery. She was just... Oum, the damage done to her brain... we would've been surprised if she'd even be able to speak, let alone wake up.

"So... Ironwood came up with the backup plan. Fucking hell, I hated that plan," Qrow said, reaching into his shirt and taking a very long swig from his flask. When he stopped, he stared into the fire for even longer, as though debating how best to inform them of this plan that he seemed to hate with a passion that they'd seldom seen before that moment.

"It... the plan was for us to take Amber's aura... and give it to someone else."

.

..

…

"... so you forced it on Pyrrha," Jaune said in a tone so cold that Shoto's worry for the blonde knight only began to grow.

"We forced _nothing_. We explained the situation, we explained the potential consequences, the good and the bad, and gave her a choice. She chose. You were there. You heard her. In any other situation, I'd rather not even approach the possibility of anything remotely like this. But... this was still her choice. No matter what it cost her in the end," Qrow said with genuine regret.

Jaune seemed to be at a loss for words. He seemed angry, confused, remorseful, and a myriad of other emotions that Shoto feared he would never be able to accurately list. After a few more tense seconds of silence, the blonde knight stood, turned, and made his way away from the campfire. Not long afterward, Shoto too stood and followed his friend, for fear of what might be going through his mind at that moment.

He heard Nora and Ruby try to stop him from going after Jaune, but he pressed on anyway, making through the thick of the woods as he followed the blonde knight's not at all subtle footsteps. He wasn't trying to hide. He just wanted to be alone.

But Shoto didn't want to think about what could happen to him if he was alone for too long. It may be what he wanted, but it was not a healthy headspace.

The clearing was modest in size, enough for the moonlight to come down and bathe the place in a silvery hue, a contrast to the dark greens and rough, earthy tones that would normally decorate it. Standing off to the side of it was Jaune, his eyes and head turned down to the grass beneath his feet as Lancelot's helmet floated around him, observing his master's mental state with a prepared caution that Shoto had seen only a few times before, polite though he was.

" _ **..."**_

"..."

" _ **... if you wish to speak, master Jaune, you may do so freely,"**_ Lancelot offered.

"What good would that do? You already know what's in my head, don't you?" the knight retorted.

" _ **True though that may be, I've found that you've always come to terms with your emotions far easier when you vocalize your thoughts. Difficult though that may be at times,"**_ Lancelot explained, as he briefly turned to Shoto. Though he didn't have eyes, the half and half leader could swear that would be the closest the Fable would ever come to giving a 'tell anyone about this and I'll make you suffer' stare. Shoto gave a brief nod, understanding where the ghostly knight was coming from. This was the person he was closest to, after all.

"... I... I'm feeling... too many _things_. This kind of stuff is supposed to be simple, damnit. It was with Cinder! I want to see her choke on her own fucking words while she's carted off in chains! I want to be angry at them. At Qrow, at Ozpin, at Ironwood, at the Oumdamn plan they couldn't perfect in time... but I... I don't know why, but... I'm not. It feels like I should be angry but I'm not."

" _ **A sense of righteous anger and feeling guilty for not having it are two different things. On some level, you might understand why they did what they did. It would not appear as though they had many options. They were under the pressure of a timer that none of them could see,"**_ Lancelot explained.

"That doesn't excuse what happened. They could've been more patient, or had more caution, or just..." Jaune said as he slumped against a nearby tree. The blonde knight knew that debating this point wouldn't do anything but keep him up far past the normal throes of sleep. No matter the 'what ifs' or 'maybes' he had floating around in his head, there was still one, overarching, painful truth. Pyrrha was gone. And she wasn't coming back.

"... I know she wouldn't want me here, debating this. Honestly, she'd be in the right to slap me out of it if she could. I... I don't know how I felt about her. Platonically, romantically, somewhere in between; I just don't know anymore. I think I did before everything happened, but now... whenever I think of her... all I feel is guilt. And regret," Jaune put his face in his hands, his longest fingers running through his bangs as he continued, struggling to keep slowly deepening sobs out of his voice. "She did so much for me. Taught me how to fight, gave me the confidence to lead. She made me realize that there's so much more to people than the stuff in stories and news reports. And when she needs me most, I repay her by screwing up like I always do and let her die!"

It was at that point that Jaune could no longer hold back the tears that flowed freely from his eyes, Lancelot only floating in a solemn, understanding silence as he let his master's emotions run freely. To cry was not a sign of weakness. Not for Jaune, and certainly not for Ruby. It was a sign of heart.

But that didn't mean it wasn't painful.

.

..

…

"... we all screwed up, Jaune."

The blonde knight's tears and sobs briefly stopped as Shoto walked beside him, a calm melancholy on his face as he continued, "We weren't prepared for Cinder. She took on seven of us at once, with the help of an Oumdamn dragon no less. And despite her disadvantages, us breaking that thing's wing, and everything else we could think of to throw at her... she still won. I hate to say it, but we were entirely outmatched. I... I couldn't react in time. None of us could. So, if you're guilty of screwing up...

"... then so am I."

The low sounds of the forest encapsulated their silence as Shoto slowly lowered himself to the ground and set himself down in the grass. He gave a brief pat to a spot next to him, offering Jaune a place to sit. After some hesitation, the blonde knight complied, and the half and half leader continued.

"You really should talk to your teammates about Pyrrha. I know you two were close. Closer than a lot of us were. And I don't mean to discount that connection. But... you're not the only one who lost her, Jaune. We all lost her. Some of us lost an ally. Most of us lost an amazing friend...

"But you three lost family. Ren and Nora are just... better at hiding the pain, I suppose."

Jaune, after a moment of contemplation, simply said nothing. He leaned back on his hands and looked up to the shattered moon. It seemed like he had a million things to say... but in the end, he couldn't decide.

Shoto joined him in his stargazing. Just a few more minutes of quiet. After everything that had happened that day, he could safely say that they deserved a bit of peace and quiet. At least for now.

 _(meanwhile, some miles north northeast, Izuku's POV)_

Yang swept one hand against the other as golden sparks flew from her open palm to the prepared tinder like pebbles off a cliff, striking once more, twice more, until finally it took to the paper, the blonde brawler gently blowing on it as Izuku finished sorting through the supplies they currently had. A few bottles of water, their sleeping bags, what little bandages and disinfectant remained in their bags, and a couple of rations each. Enough to last them a couple more days, maybe a little less than a week if they _really_ stretched what they had.

By the time Yang had the fire going properly, the green haired inheritor had already repacked everything he'd taken stock of. Their campsite was a small one, easily hidden by the foliage that surrounded them. Their fire wasn't very big either, only enough to keep them warm and give them some light. Not nearly big enough to give off a smoke signal.

But those were only a few of the many, many things he tried to think of to keep his mind occupied and away from the other two dominating thoughts as much as possible. But of course, they were temporary measures, and he was left with the same two thoughts once again.

The first was the really, really, _really_ awkward tension between him and Yang. Had they just confessed to each other? Like, five hours ago? It... argh! Why was this so confusing?! It would be so simple to just say yes, yes they had; and he really, really wanted to say that and have her agree and they could finally be together... but they'd hardly talked about anything since the clearing. And he didn't want to assume they were a thing when they clearly needed to talk more about it and establish what exactly they were to each other now.

… okay, emotionally charged internal rant over. Now, on to the other, more pressing subject.

Izuku knew that, at this point, there was basically no doubt in his mind that he was going to tell Yang what he was involved with. The Maidens, Salem, Ozpin and his council; all of it. But that also brought up the other stuff. One for All. All for One. The other Inheritors. All Might. And his past.

The latter was something that he was particularly terrified of. But not for a reason that one might normally think of. At this point, if he couldn't trust Yang with any of that stuff, he might as well trust no one at all. No, the problem laid in who he really was. How he was born. The fact that he had been, and felt he still was, a Fractured. Even all of the amazing times at Beacon, and meeting all of his wonderful friends, couldn't erase ten years of self-loathing and loneliness.

Yang had never spoken much about her opinions on the Fractured. It had never really come up, so there was no real reason to talk about it. And that was what was terrifying him right now. He honestly had no idea how she would react to this revelation, be it good or bad. He wanted to believe that she'd take it without batting an eye, accept him for who he was just as she always had before...

… but what if she didn't? What if she hated him for this? For keeping all of this from her? He didn't want to think that it would be possible for someone with as big a heart as hers to do something so cruel... but the doubt sank in all the same.

"... Izuku? You okay?"

Speaking of whom, the blonde brawler had noticed that Izuku had begun staring into space for the last minute and finally decided to voice her concern. She'd gotten a bit closer in the time that Izuku had drifted through his thoughts, debated the many pros and the few terrifying cons of telling her everything.

But, after looking at her again, seeing her eyes filled with genuine worry, remembering what had transpired earlier in the clearing... he couldn't let these doubts into his mind any longer. She deserved to know as much as he did. Whatever happened after that... would happen. And that would be that.

"I'm fine. You... you sitting comfortably?"

Yang gave a sharp nod, crossing her legs as she did so. "Remember, you don't have to tell me everything all at once. Pace yourself. It doesn't have to all be tonight."

"... yeah. But you still deserve to know. Okay. Here goes..."

And so, he told her everything that came to mind. He told her about the Maidens, their powers, how they reincarnated, convoluted though it was. He spoke of Salem and her agents; what little he truly knew about her. He told what he knew of Cinder, that she was once a half-Maiden, using stolen powers that were given fully to her when she killed the previous Fall Maiden. The Silver-Eyed Warriors, what he could tell of them, and that Ruby was one of them. The brother gods, the gifts they left behind, and the dual purpose of the Hunter Academies. And then... there remained only one more story to tell.

Izuku took a deep breath and sighed as he approached the final topic. Yang already looked as though she was going through shock after shock every time he revealed more and more about what he knew.

"Are you alright? Do you want to stop?" he asked. If she wanted to process what she'd already learned, it could wait another night.

But still, she shook her head and replied, "I should be asking you that. I'm willing to listen if you're willing to talk."

"Okay. It's... a really, really long story, though. Longer than basically everything else I've talked about. It also... might change how you think of me. You're sure?" he asked.

Yang, determined as she ever was, simply nodded. Izuku took a moment to brace himself. "Here goes...

"I was a really simple kid. I loved everything hunter related. Weapons, clothes, semblances; I ate it all up. But All Might... he had a special place in my heart. He was my idol. My everything. A hero, not just a hunter, _a hero,_ who always managed to smile in the face of danger. There was no one he couldn't save. I wanted to be just like him, when I grew up. It was all I wanted.

"... and then I went to a doctor. I was diagnosed... as Fractured."

The silence was deafening. If someone were to drop a pin, it would sound like a bomb. Yang's already shocked face somehow grew even moreso, her hand twitching as though she were resisting the instinct to reach up and cover her mouth. He could only imagine the thoughts running through her head at that moment. But he couldn't ponder that right now. He had to finish the story.

"After that, my whole life changed. What seemed like a future dream was nothing more than a fantasy. None of my preschool friends wanted to talk to me anymore. Bakugo got a huge ego boost after he learned about me. 'What a weakling.' 'Defenseless Izuku.' That kind of stuff became commonplace. It didn't take long for me to get used to it.

"But... that wasn't going to stop me. So I kept trying, kept writing, kept thinking. I still wanted to be a hunter. I still wanted to be a hero. I still wanted to be an inspiration to someone just like me. And then... I met my hero. I met All Might."

And then, there came the real meat of the story. His instinctual saving of Bakugo, his ten months of absolute hell, the inheritance of One for All, and the significance of his doing so. And then there came talk of how One for All and All for One originated in the first place. The fairy tale had never been a popular one, even back during the brief Renaissance period the previous century, but the expanded version slowly put the pieces into place, causing Yang to gradually take on a face of epiphany as everything came together.

"... so, yeah. That's... basically everything. Well... almost. There was something that happened pretty recently. It can wait for tomorrow, if you want it to," Izuku said, despite the fact that, after all of this explanation, he still hadn't talked about Raven or the rather intense encounter he and Qrow had had with her in that bar. It was starting to eat at him.

 _I also feel kinda guilty for cussing her out. I think Bakugo may have rubbed off on me a little too much._

"Oum, this is a lot," Yang said as she rubbed her forehead as she currently processed all of that with everything else that Izuku had just explained. "Sorry. I think I've taken in all I can right now."

"... are you gonna be alright?" Izuku asked. It was a dumb question, but he felt it needed to be asked. He learned everything at a drip, sure, but that didn't change the fact that it was all very overwhelming.

"If I'm being entirely honest, if I heard this coming from anyone else, I probably would've called them crazy. But you wouldn't make any of this up. For one thing, on the logical side, it's way too dense to be fake. And I know you wouldn't lie to me about something this important. Not after trusting me with such a personal story. Hell, I think I can count the number of times you've lied at all on one hand," Yang said as she ran her hands through her long mane of hair.

Then, another question occurred to her. "How much of this does Ruby know? Does she know about you?"

"I'd be the wrong person to ask about that. As far as I know, she only knew the bare basics of the Silver-Eyed Warriors. I'm hoping Qrow told her, and everyone else. After everything that happened today, they deserve an explanation," Izuku said. The red-eyed reaper was fairly good at dodging questions, but after all the time they'd spent training together, he knew that the man had one of the biggest hearts in all of Remnant, second only to Ruby's.

"Well, that's good," Yang said with a brief sigh. "Erm... actually, this is kinda weird to ask after everything else and what I said earlier, but... could you... maybe... tell me that last thing now? I don't want to keep us up all night with that hanging over us."

Izuku briefly panicked. Well, it was less a panic and more an intensely brief moment of surprise. But, it was a moment nonetheless, and it never spread to his face. He took a brief moment to note that they were sitting much closer than they had been at the start of his regaling. Their shoulders nearly touched, hands barely half a pinkie's length away from intertwining the aforementioned fingers.

For a single second, he hesitated. But that was all it was. A second.

"Qrow and I... we ran into Raven. At that bar in Higanbana. It was... really tense. I think she might've wanted to kill me. She was asking about the relic, and... things sorta just started to escalate from there. And when she left... Oum, I should've just told you all right then and there. I... I'm so sorry..."

Izuku turned to look at her reaction. It was a mix of pure, shock widened eyes that briefly held red in their edges, as her lip trembled before straightening into a thin line. Despite the lack of actual distance between them, it suddenly felt as though there were a thousand miles between them.

For a full minute, Izuku regretted bringing the subject up at all.

But then, after hearing nothing but the flicker and crackle of the campfire, the green haired inheritor felt a pair of arms wrap themselves around him and gently squeeze themselves around his torso. Long, golden locks of hair fell onto his left shoulder as a light weight perched itself on the same shoulder. "No. Don't be sorry. I... thank you so much for telling me that. I won't ask what else you guys talked about, not right now. But..."

Her grip tightened a bit as Izuku further relaxed into her hold, letting his head brush against hers as their cheeks came only a hair's breadth from touching. He could feel the heat radiating off of her skin. Had he less self-control, he would've gladly lost himself in it.

"And... about what you told me? I'm still processing a lot of this, but I do know one thing. I do care about you. Nothing's going to change that, no matter what the context of those feelings might be. Nothing."

For the next several minutes, he wished that they could simply stay like that for as long as they wanted. An eternity, if they felt so inclined. Something guttural told him that Yang felt the same.

But, once this thought was given some room to breathe as the two slowly drifted off to their inevitable slumber, it became nothing more than a passing fantasy. But what an appealing fantasy it was.

 **A/N: And that's a wrap! As I'm finishing this up, it's nearly ten thirty, and mine brain is tired. So very, very tired. I'm taking the summer off again, so chapters should be more frequent now! Hopefully... but, for now:**

 **Review Responses:**

 **Thunder Dragon: Well, they're not quite there yet. But they're getting there. It just might take a little while longer. And maybe one or two more intense fights.**

 **Odin's Eye: Yeah. After they got separated and all, I thought you guys could use one last moment with all of them together and just being friends.**

 **Leviathan's Heir: Yeah. I hope you enjoyed this aftermath chapter. I feel like I could've spent a bit more time on it, though.**

 **Enku: Indeed they can't. And... yes and no? To put it simply, after everything that happened that day, Yang is probably just as confused as you guys are, though she does know that she still cares about Izuku.**

 **King Ceasar Jr: Indeed.**

 **KongKing94: Yep! Though that may or may not involve a few broken bones along the way.**

 **Uruk-Hai: Oh, how simple that would be... I wish it was that simple. Unfortunately, this is Remnant! Nothing's as simple as it should be!**

 **Kaiser Dragon: Indeed she will... when they both admit how they feel. Which is not quite yet, unfortunately.**

 **jaalco: Yes. Kind of. It's sentient, but its existence is tied to Jaune.**

 **And that's everything for now!**

 **Next Chapter: Jun. 7** **th**

 **Seeya in the next one!**


	52. Tales of the Lost

**A/N: Not much happening for this A/N guys. Sorry! Enjoy the chapter!**

 **Disclaimer: I do not own RWBY or My Hero Academia. They belong to Monty Oum, Kohei Horikoshi, and their respective publishing companies. Please support the official releases.**

 **I do not own the cover image.**

Chapter 52: Tales of the Lost

Sun had woken peacefully for the second day in a row. He'd honestly gotten used to the dreams, horrifying though they were. They served as a reminder whenever he felt as though there wasn't any real point in him being there, in Menagerie. To never forget how badly he had failed.

Still, he couldn't tell the others about them. They didn't need him whining about his own problems when they were clearly going through a lot of things themselves. Blake especially. She avoided the topic of Beacon and anything related to it as much as she could, for obvious reasons. She had been through a lot that night. As much as he wanted to break her out of that mindset by force, he was sensible enough to know that actually following through with this particular thought would be pretty stupid on his part. She needed time. They all did. Even if it caused him to become increasingly impatient, he could bear it.

He donned his iconic white shirt once again, his arms slipping through the sleeves as easily as wind passing through an open window. Without a second thought, his hands wrapped themselves around his signature weapons: Ruyi Bang and Jingu Bang, aka the gunchucks. With dexterous speed, he pulled them from their holsters and proceeded to twirl them around in a complicated flurry of blows that would do some major damage to anyone on the receiving end, even when he decided not to use the shotguns and give the blows an extra kick to them.

Then, seemingly mid-combo, he brought the two weapons together to form their staff, Ruyi Jingu Bang, and went through a few motions with that: upper backswing, around the back fan-twirl, spinning high strike, a quick jab, and finally a downward strike to knock them out cold for a week.

Had Sun not taken account for the size of the room he was staying in or hadn't had the safeties of his guns on for the entirety of that showcase, he probably would've wrecked the floor. Case in point, the fact that his staff was elevated barely a quarter-inch off of the ground. Speaking of, the stance he was in was proving to be rather tiring, and he slowly shifted out of it, split his staff into gunchucks once more, and holstered them just beneath the small of his back. A small comfort, but a welcome one.

Even though it had been nearly a month since they got to Menagerie, Sun still felt like an outsider. It wasn't a foreign feeling, but it was still unpleasant, though it was significantly less hostile than it was when he was still new to Mistral. He stayed inside training most days, only leaving the house to help Kali get groceries or occasionally walking through the edge of town in the hopes of finding some remnant of the old monkey temples he would be conducting a proper search for in the next few weeks or so.

As he went to the door, something seemed to stop him from leaving. When he finally gained the nerve to turn around, he saw his bag still open on the modestly sized bed, revealing a white, tattered piece of clothing that he kept as a memento-

 _No. Not right now. I need to focus, damnit._

With deft hands, Sun quickly buried the article of clothing in the bottom of the bag and pulled it closed as fast as his limbs would allow him. Not quite able to suppress the sigh that came to his lips, he turned once more to the door. This time, he didn't hesitate to leave.

A few minutes later, everyone had gathered around the main table to partake in breakfast, to which Sun happily obliged. He looked around and quickly noticed that everyone was lost in conversation in one form or another. Well, Blake was sitting beside him, eating silently as per usual, so there was that.

Additionally, he couldn't help but notice that once every few days or so, Ghira would break from his conversation, if he was engaging in one, to briefly glare at him for a split second. Not a hostile glare, more a 'keep your hands off my daughter' glare. It could be confused as a hostile one, but Sun had had enough glares directed at him to know the difference well. Sun understood why the man did it, what with her ex and all; he was assuming for the time being that Blake and Adam had been romantically involved in the past until someone told him otherwise, but it was still somewhat unnerving.

"So, that healing thing... isn't really healing?" he heard Bakugo ask the large man.

"Yes and no. It does grant some form of limited healing, but it's not truly a way of healing grievous wounds. When the damage gets too severe to heal within the power's means, it simply... holds you together. That's all it can do at that point," Ghira explained. "From what I've heard from Mitsuki, it's not a pleasant experience."

"I can attest to that," the blonde direwolf answered as he rubbed the large scar running over his chest absentmindedly.

Sun's attention was then drawn to Neo and Kali, the former of whom was in the process of teaching the latter sign language in order to communicate more effectively. Neo had typed out a series of sentences and given Kali the task of repeating them accurately with her hands. She would give a demonstration, and then go over it with the elder cat faunus until they got it right.

"So... like this?" Kali asked as she quickly formed various signs and motions with surprising dexterity, seemingly stopped mid-sentence by Neo as she corrected something that was wrong with her pronunciation. Or was it the presentation? Were those synonymous when it came to sign? Sun honestly didn't know and was a bit curious about the subject. A question for another time, he supposed.

"Are... you sure?" Kali asked with genuine confusion, to which the split haired girl simply nodded, though Sun did notice the look of a devilish trickster in her eyes. He knew it well, since he donned a similar expression whenever he was about to perform a prank of some sort. As if on cue-

"Neo, quit misinforming her with those innuendos," the blonde direwolf said without missing a beat, not even bothering to turn around as Neo snapped towards him with a defiant look, furious that he had ruined her joke.

"I thought something was off about this sentence," Kali said with a smile. "You nearly got me. Well played!"

That gave Neo a bit of surprise. Kali, noticing the girl's confusion, further explained, "I was quite a trickster myself when I was your age. I've long since grown out of that, but I do look back on those days rather fondly. Especially when I got to tease Ghira for hours on end," she said with a mirrored, devilish smile.

Ghira flinched in reaction to that. "Damnit, why does everyone have to get on my case about being so squeamish? I got better! Eventually! Besides, it's not as though your never-ending bouts of innuendos helped the process!"

"Aw, but seeing you squirm was so cute!" Kali retorted with the same wide smile. "Besides, it's not as though you didn't get back at me."

"It was a long time coming, but I finally got my revenge," Ghira said with a firm nod and pride in his voice. "It was the best decision I ever made."

"Wait, what exactly-" Bakugo asked before Kali answered the question he barely voiced.

"He eventually worked up the nerve to ask me out on a proper date after we both became curious enough. Fast forward two and a half years, and we were happily married with Blake on the way," Kali recalled fondly. "The best revenge ever served. Quite lovely at that."

Sun's smile slipped a bit as they continued conversing like that. How long had it honestly been since he'd done something like that? Pulled a prank or made some dumb joke that everyone would groan at? The others were going to catch on eventually, he knew that, but... he wasn't ready to talk. Not yet. Keeping up the charade that he was alright was getting harder by the day, but he could bear with it. He had to-

"Sun?" he heard Blake ask. He tried to maintain his mask as best he could around the raven-haired girl, his smile filling out to what it usually was once again as he turned to her. There was concern in her eyes, that much was obvious, and it honestly felt like a stab in the gut every time he had to lie to everyone who held that same look. Blake and Kali were where it came from most often, and he'd recently seen Bakugo and even Neo give him a similar once over a few times. Surprisingly, the look had even come from Ghira, though only once, when Sun had been quiet for far too long and the man had become accustomed to him going on and on about something, anything, or nothing at all, just to fill the quiet. He'd stopped doing that entirely two days ago.

Still, he held fast, and gave his normal response with a cheeky tone. "That's me."

"Are you... alright? You've been pretty quiet recently," Blake stated. "Which is weird, because you're usually never quiet."

Okay, now she was starting to feel that something was actually wrong and not just a string of off days. Still, he didn't let it sway him, and gave the classic explanation, "I've been pretty tired lately. Guess I should probably hit the sack early tonight. Might do me some good!"

It was crap, but it was honestly all he had at the moment.

"... as long as you're sure."

He knew that she didn't believe him. Sure, maybe he could act down for a day or two and it wouldn't be too out of the ordinary; he always used managed to bounce back from bad days relatively quickly, but he knew it wouldn't keep up for much longer. Not with so many eyes turning to him.

"I'm sure! Welp," Sun said as he rose from the table, picking his dishes up and saying, "I'm heading into the market for a few hours. You guys want anything?"

"We're almost out of salmon. Could you get some if it's available?" Kali asked. "I've got the Lien to pay you back for it, don't worry."

"Okay. Anything else?"

"We're gonna need a new training dummy pretty soon. Other than that, I think we're good," Bakugo said.

"Alright. I'm off!" Sun said as he sped into the kitchen to deposit his dishes before hopping through a window and taking his 'special route' to the marketplace. He couldn't help but notice, however, that Blake's eyes had been staring at his back the entire time. Like she might never see him again. Which was ridiculous. He wasn't going anywhere dangerous.

For the moment, at least.

 _(two hours later, the Kuo Kuana Marketplace, Sun's POV)_

After a long while of aimless wandering, and a few short minutes of actual shopping, Sun managed to get the two things he had been requested to get; the salmon hanging from a bag in his left hand and the wooden training dummy slung over his right shoulder. As usual, he hadn't found any actual clues as to the location of the temple he was looking for, but it never hurt to cover all of your bases.

As Sun walked back, however, something glinted for a brief moment in the sunlight, catching his eye as he turned to the offending object. The blonde's annoyance quickly turned to shock, however, as he recognized the make of the blade that had caught his attention. It had a long, gray-black handle and a bronze chain hanging from its pommel. The blade of the sword itself was long, wide and dense in mass, with a shining gray finish and a bronze streak running down the middle. Near the base of the blade were Roman numerals, matching the tattoos he'd often seen around Sage's neck, reading as 8, 9, 10, 11 and 12.

For a few seconds, his mind started to wander. To the green-haired, dark-skinned hardass who'd basically volunteered to be the quiet man of Team SSSN. The one who cared for nothing but a good fight and a nice nap. The one who, after a few months, eventually became the backbone of their entire team. And the one who'd managed to get him out of many a sticky situation simply by being calm and reserved. The one who-

"Hey! Kid!"

Sun's reverie was suddenly broken when the owner of a weapons stall managed to get his attention, then asking him, "You gonna buy anything?"

"Erm... no, just... browsing," Sun said in an attempt to cover up his sudden embarrassment.

The vendor simply chuckled, scratching her right ear as she reassured him, "'s alright. Everyone's usually at least a little interested in weaponry. Though I'm guessing you don't need a new one, eh?"

Sun gave a nod, though he was somewhat unnerved that this woman was able to discern that he had a weapon on him to begin with. However, that brought up another question that he never really had time to ask any of the Belladonnas.

"If Kuo Kuana's at peace, why are you selling weapons?"

"Need some way to make a living. Besides, these things aren't for fighting humanoids. They're mostly for hunting, of both varieties. There haven't been any real hunters in this town for quite some time, so we had to find some way to defend ourselves. Doesn't mean we just hand out weapons, though. Especially guns. You've usually gotta either be with the militia or the volunteer corps to get weapons without too much of a fuss around here. And they usually don't let you join either of those if you're part of the Fang in any capacity," the vendor explained causally.

"I'm not with either of those groups," Sun said. _Hell, I've never even heard of them until now. Guess that's my own fault though. Haven't exactly made learning about this Kuo Kuana itself a priority._

The woman then leaned forward, her fingers lacing themselves together as she propped herself on her elbows, showing a few callouses and a couple of scars along her arms. "And yet you have both the caution and markings of a trained warrior. I know the look of a real hunter when I see one. Used to be one myself."

"Really?" Sun asked, genuinely surprised.

"Yeah. It was a hell of a ride, for a time," she conferred.

"But... I'm not a full hunter. I'm not even out of training," the blonde tried to explain.

"And yet, the way you carry yourself speak far louder than any words that come from your lips," the woman said with a slight smile.

"... why'd you stop?"

The woman sighed as she reached for a wooden crutch, propping it under her right elbow as she raised herself to Sun's height. That same leg looked to be very injured, to the point that Sun wouldn't have been surprised if she said she had nerve damage. "As I said, it was a hell of a time... while it lasted, anyway. But some stuff doesn't heal entirely. Whether on the outside or the inside. And in the end... you're gonna carry that weight."

Sun could do nothing but give a solemn nod to that. He knew that sentiment well.

The silence went on for a few more seconds before the woman snapped herself out of her depressed lull and instead got back to the topic at hand. "So? Are you interested in anything? Swords perhaps? Saw you eyeing one of 'em a couple minutes ago."

"Erm... yeah, I kinda was, actually," Sun answered, though somewhat reluctantly.

"It was this one, yeah?" the woman said as she made her way over to the sword that looked hauntingly like Sage's. "The design used to be pretty popular back in the day, but now that everyone's been getting more and more into mecha-shift weapons it's basically just a 'bland tool.' Personally, I like classic weapons because they don't have any chance of jamming or potentially breaking beyond repair because of a single missed detail in cleaning them. So... interested?"

Sun had to admit, while he could definitely see that this was a sales pitch, it nonetheless felt genuine, especially seeing as the closest things she had to mecha-shift weaponry was a pair of revolvers with blades on the bottom parts of the guns and some notches to suggest extending handles for close combat.

That and...

"How much is it?" he asked.

"For you? Hundred fifty Lien, if you've got it," the woman said, lifting the massive sword with a single hand and offering it to him. Sun was only minorly surprised by this, and put the payment onto her stand as he shifted his other purchases to make room for the blade.

"Pleasure doing business with ya!" the woman said as Sun continued to make his way home, waving a short goodbye to the woman with a new weapon in hand.

Honestly, while it was a very good weapon, and Sun was absolutely going to give it the best care be possibly could, he also wasn't entirely sure whether or not he was really going to fight with it. Sure, he knew how to use blades well enough, but he was nowhere near the level of mastery that had been displayed by Izuku, Shoto, Pyrrha, and especially Sage. Maybe he was just in the midst of nostalgia and seeing his friend's old weapon, even a lookalike of it, had stirred enough fond memories within him that he decided to follow through with that purchase. Or maybe he simply felt like having a backup weapon.

Those thoughts were soon pushed from his mind when he heard a small crash in an alleyway just next to him, the hearing a brief and hastily hushed chastisement from someone else as he slowed his pace for a single moment, then pretending to simply walk past with no fuss. At least, that's what they thought he did. Instead, he leaned against one of the walls just on the edge of the alleyway, thankful for once that Menagerie was so crowded. With so many other footsteps around, it was likely they thought he simply moved along with the crowd.

"You idiot! What part of quiet don't you understand?!" one of the figures whisper-yelled, a female if the depth of her voice was any indicator.

"I'm sorry, this place just has a lot of random crap lying around," the other responded with a masculine voice.

"I... I know. Sorry about that outburst. Why the hell did they make this our meeting spot again?" the girl responded.

"Because this is one of the only places that isn't patrolled regularly," said another female, who he presumed had just entered the alleyway.

Sun now had another complaint about the crowd abundance: you could barely hear anything. An advantage for them, but a real problem for him. Seriously, he was straining his hearing just to keep up with who was who. Still, their conversation continued.

"Were either of you followed?" the recent addition asked the other two.

"No mam," the guy responded. "Had a brief false alarm, but nothing to write home about."

"Good. Masks?"

"Ready and accounted for," the first girl said, some ruffling of clothes inferring that she was the one who'd brought these... masks...

As silently as he could, Sun shifted what he was carrying out of his grasp as quietly as he could as they continued discoursing information, pulling out his Scroll in order to capture what little of this seemingly shady group of people looked like. If it was an honest misunderstanding, he wouldn't hesitate to delete the photos immediately, but he had a feeling he wouldn't have to. They were being way too secretive to simply be discussing generic festival masks.

With only the briefest of check to ensure his flash wasn't on, Sun peeked the device around the corner and aimed it for one of the people who was ensuring that their mask fit. As soon as he was done with that, he ensured that he got pictures of the other two who were either pocketing their masks from view or trying to discreetly hide it behind their body, in case anything unexpected happened. It was also around this time that the one who'd foolishly put his mask on realized his mistake and quickly pocketed it. They then exchanged their farewells and silently left the alleyway without a trace.

There was no doubt now. These were White Fang members. With masks that had been illegal on Menagerie ever since Ghira had taken over as Chieftan. At least, that's what he'd learned from Kali and Blake. Their masks were two typical Fang masks; serpentine in nature with red detailing and two mid-sized slits on each eye. However, the third was confusing in its details. While it was largely the same, it was also thinner in material, as though it was meant to be used by someone in a more stealth related profession than straight up brawls. The red detailing was additionally different, with a darker shade of crimson instead of the bold, borderline neon red, and the patterns flowing in more eloquent patterns than the typical mask, and the grey horns near the top of where the left and right temple would be with the mask on only cemented that he'd just intercepted something he wasn't supposed to. This was probably a higher-ranking member of some sort, maybe a platoon leader at the least. Either way...

 _I've gotta get this to Blake. Now!_

Unfortunately, the crowds happened to disagree with him, as the already thick crowd had gotten even thicker. He didn't want to use his normal route for fear of the Fang seeing him and tailing him back to the Belladonnas, even if the house was massive. And so, with a determined gait to his step, he began to wade through the massive crowd of people with all the speed he could muster. He hoped it was enough to get him back in time.

 _(meanwhile, just outside Athens, Jaune's POV)_

It was official. Athens was simply stunning. Even though they were only at the city gates, he could plainly see just how much Mistral's love for nature truly meant to them. Vines and plant life grew freely within the entranceway: a few trees planted symmetrically across from each other, vines that seemed to have grown at just the right angle to look as pleasing as possible, and the sheer variety of fruits, vegetables, and flowers gave the place a distinct yet varied color palette that simply hadn't been matched by the other places he'd visited.

He remembered from a time when Pyrrha had spoken freely of her home that Athens had been built on the largest marble mine in all of Remnant, and that to this day scholars thought they had still only scratched the surface of that resource. From how abundant it was within the city proper's architecture, that sentiment was quite accurate. There was marble in basically everything. Houses, buildings large and small, almost every walkway had it in some shape or form, and even a few wide walker's roads were made of it. Stone and wood were abundant within the city as well, making up a few of the primary supports of the structures, and, if the hotel they'd be staying in was anything to go by, made up most of the floors as well. For a practical but still pleasing aesthetic.

And now... he was here. Walking through the city that Pyrrha had once called home. They were all going to visit this place, once the Vytal Tournament had ended. JNPR would stay together through rain and shine, just like they'd promised so many months ago. Best friends forever. His... only friends.

 _And now, here I am, wandering aimlessly, talking to myself._

 _ **You're not entirely alone, master Jaune.**_

 _That's... not what I meant, Lance. I know you're here and all, but... you're technically a part of me._

 _ **True. But I'm here nonetheless.**_

… _thanks for the sentiment._

Lancelot knew what he really meant by 'alone.' He should've brought Ren and Nora with him. They'd have made for excellent company as they walked the streets. Nora would bounce around on her heels, excited by everything in sight, while Ren simply sighed and did the best he could to keep her under relative control. He'd smile at their antics and trail behind them, to ensure that Nora didn't leave too much chaos in her wake. And then Pyrrha-

Before his thought could continue and his still complicated thoughts resurface, he received a call on his scroll. He briefly sighed before picking it up, finding Shoto on the other end of the line.

" _Not to be a worrywart, but where are you? Ren and Nora are kinda worried, and we actually had to stop Ruby from going after you and getting lost herself,"_ the de facto leader of their group asked.

"I've just... been walking. And thinking to myself," Jaune answered. He knew this was a bit of a step back after the talk they'd had the other night, and he really did appreciate Shoto's words of encouragement, but he still felt confused by the whole thing.

" _Okay. But could you give us some kind of location when you can? We'd prefer to know that you're safe,"_ Shoto said.

"Yeah, once I find out where I am. Hopefully, that'll be pretty soon. Any sign of Qrow?" Jaune asked back, their feathery haired guardian having disappeared the night previous, with the promise that he would be watching over them from afar. Something to do with his semblance. And his name bringing bad luck.

" _No. Seems like he was being serious about his semblance,"_ Shoto responded.

"Yeah. I mean, I can only imagine how I'd cope if I... caused..."

" _... Jaune? You okay?"_

.

..

…

"... I think I just found out where I am," the blonde knight said as he stared upwards in awe. It was... a beautiful... yet still melancholic sight.

" _Where?"_

"The statue. You can find me at the statue."

A brief rustling of various papers filled the phone before Shoto asked for specification. _"Which one?"_

"You'll know the one."

And with that, Jaune took only a brief moment more before he hung up. He... he had to face this. End it. Once and for all.

The surrounding hedges, carved into the various bodies of fading Grimm of all shapes and sizes made what laid in the center out to be quite a skilled warrior, with weaker Grimm on the edges while the sizes got bigger, and the danger grew deeper. And there, within the center of all of it, was her statue. Made with incredible detail of the purest bronze, her javelin raised skywards in defiance, her shield bound tightly to her other arm as a faint but present smile was spread across her lips.

 _Pyrrha..._

At the base of the podium that held her statue, there was a placard. One of brilliant red steel, her symbol made just below the words themselves. It read, **In honor of Pyrrha Nikos, one of the many who fought valiantly at Beacon. Sic Parvus Magnum.**

It took all of Jaune's willpower not to immediately burst into tears. It wasn't how he would've chosen to depict her, but it was also very accurate. She was always the first on the front lines. The shield at their flank. The shoulder to lean on. He never knew how much they had truly relied on her. Not until she wasn't there anymore.

Nonetheless... the statue...

"It's quite a sight."

Jaune was taken from his thoughts when he heard those words, turning to his left to find a woman standing beside him with a bouquet of red flowers in her arms, wearing square-rimmed glasses over large, vivid emerald eyes with chin-length crimson hair. Was she...?

"... yeah," Jaune replied, simply. There was no need to ask. He knew who she was. Why else would she bother speaking to him at all?

"There's another in Sanctum, much like this one. They may be different, but they're both true to who she was. I remember the day she told everyone she was going to Beacon instead of Sanctum. They were crushed, but understood why all the same. What few friends she had at the time didn't want to say goodbye, but... it was where she wanted to be. I'm..." she took a moment to wipe a pair of tears that fell from her eyes. "I'm just happy that she got to meet such amazing people."

Jaune could feel her gaze upon him, understanding the true meaning to her statement. Drying a few silent tears of his own, he turned to her, and found mutual grief for her daughter, for his friend, in her eyes. And in that moment, his will began to slip.

"I'm not amazing," he told her. "I always wanted to be the hero I never was. The one I'm still not. To be the one that other people could look to when they needed help. Not the damsel in distress that I had been for most of my life. But I tried to do it alone because I was too damn stubborn to accept help. Even when I needed it. It was... one of my many, many misconceptions of how Remnant really worked. But Pyrrha... she helped me. Trained me. Gave me a different point of view. She _saved_ me. Not from Grimm. Not from bandits. She saved me from myself. I don't think I would've ever been able to repay her for that.

"... I wish she were here, in my place. _She_ was what the world needed. Not another screwup like me."

"But she is here. In a way," the woman said, placing the bouquet on the statue's platform. "They say the dead often live on in those they leave behind." She turned to face him, a faint but present smile on her lips.

"She's here with you," she said as she pointed to where his heart would be.

"And she's here with me," she continued, placing a tender hand over her own.

"And I know that... she'd want everyone she left behind... to keep moving forward. Even if it's hard."

There was silence between them for a few moments. Only the quiet of the fading afternoon and the whisper on the lips of the wind. Resolved to what would come next, he removed a bag from his shoulder. The very reason that they had all unanimously decided to come to Athens in the first place. Even if for just a short while, unable to truly learn about the home of their fallen friend.

"I know Pyrrha never had the chance to graduate. To go out into the world and make her mark. But for the time I knew her... she was, and always had been a hunter," Jaune said as he presented it to her.

"Is this...?" she asked in shock, her hands slowly reaching out to grasp the straps. While the true weight of what laid within was surprisingly light, despite its great strength, the emotional weight that accompanied it was heavy.

Jaune simply nodded. "She deserved to come home."

With that, the woman clutched the bag full of armor close to her chest, burying her face into it as she let silent tears flow freely. They were a mixture of joy and sadness. Sorrow for the daughter that would never truly come home, but happiness in the fact that she had something more to remember her by.

"Thank you, Jaune. Thank you," the woman said.

And with that, she left.

"Jaune!" he heard Nora call to him. "There you are! Why..."

The lack of explosive energy coming from her lips in the form of words told him of the shock she had at seeing her statue. Ren wasn't far behind, the two taking spots to his left and right to look upon the visage of their fallen friend.

"... I'm sorry. I've been... an awful leader. And a worse friend. And I-"

"Jaune," Ren said firmly, placing his hand on his friend's shoulder. "This needs to stop."

"We... heard you a bit once Qrow had finished explaining the rest to us. You're not being fair to yourself. You're our friend, and we love you. You're not the only one grieving. So please... talk to us, okay? Even if it's only for a little while," Nora said with a tender heart.

Jaune, with tears in his eyes, hugged his two teammates with all his strength. Oum, what did he ever do to deserve friends like these? After a moment of shock, the two hugged him back, taking this as an answer to Nora's question. It wouldn't be easy. Losing someone that close never was. But now... at least he realized he wasn't as alone as though once thought.

Turning back to her statue after their long embrace, Jaune smiled at the bronze depiction, a few fond memories of their time together floating through the sea of his mind. Though his feelings were murky, and likely always would be, they were fond nonetheless.

"C'mon. We should get back to the hotel, plan out our route," Ren said as Nora quickly skipped behind him, though they waited for Jaune at the entrance to the garden.

"... thank you," he said, though he was unsure if she heard it. Hopefully, if some kind of afterlife existed, she was listening.

 _(several minutes later, a hotel in Athens, Jaune's POV)_

Jaune honestly wasn't surprised about the air option. They were probably going to be under 'urgent hunter business only' protocol for another month or two. What had caught him off guard was the fact that the primary entrance to the Frost Mountains had been blocked off by a massive Avalanche. While on other mountain passes this wouldn't necessarily be a problem, every other entrance had either been long since overrun by Grimm or were so inhospitable that setting up an outpost was tantamount to a death sentence.

And thus, they had reached their current decision. Their only path was through the Yuri Trail.

"We shouldn't go through there," Ren said. His objection was understandable. He and Nora had been survivors of the Yuri Massacre, and going back there would reopen old wounds that he might not be ready to face again.

"Ren... I get why you don't want to. We all do. But we really don't have a choice," Ruby said. As it turned out, when the voice of reason suddenly turns to a state of unreason, it suddenly becomes very hard to reach a bipartisan solution.

"We can trek through the forests and go around it," Ren argued.

"Then we'll just be going into uncharted territory. We'd be easy prey for wandering Grimm," Shoto said. He had a point too. With Qrow now guarding against Tyrian, he might not be able to be as thorough as he usually was.

"Then-"

"Ren. It's alright," Nora said, placing a firm hand on his arm. "We... we both knew we were going to have to go back there eventually. Not in this way, or at this time, but eventually. I know we're ready."

The honesty in her statement caught him off guard. Finally, the magenta-eyed boy turned to his leader, and Jaune gave him a firm nod. "I've made the mistake of not opening up to you guys. And I'm not about to let you make the same one. Whatever happens there, I'm with you."

"... I... thank you," Ren said as he clutched Nora's hand tightly, in a definitely more than friends kind of way. Seriously, if those two didn't talk about the sparks flying between them by Mistral, he was going to sit them down and make them talk, damnit!

But, that was for another place, and another time.

"Alright. The Yuri Trail it is."

 _(meanwhile, the Belladonna household, Bakugo's POV)_

The night was a clear one. Not a single cloud, large, small, or otherwise, to be seen in the sky. The air was soothingly cool, a fact that the daytime simply could not compete with. Stars littered the sky like dust crystals often would within caves.

And, of course, the half-pint known to the world as Neo was proudly resting her head on his shoulder. He'd never admit it, but having her there was something of a comfort. At least he wasn't alone when he came up here. It had also given him the time to learn sign language in spades, with Neo giving him several innuendo statements as jokes that she would fall over laughing to due to his obliviousness. Eventually, though, she got serious about teaching him sign, and now he was fairly decent at sign language. Not entirely fluent, but enough for basic conversation.

"See any constellations?" Bakugo asked.

Neo then turned to him in confusion and signed, _"I never really bothered to learn. Why?"_

"Just a question. Figured I'd ask," Bakugo said. "I only know a couple. The Compass Points and Leo."

" _I mean, everyone and their grandparents know about the Compass Points, but why Leo?"_

"I can relate to the badass who keeps trying," Bakugo semi-bragged. He wasn't lying, though. Every time he took a loss, he took it hard. Some would say too hard, but he had his pride, damnit. It meant a lot to him. Even if he was slowly learning how to view losses in a different light. It still sucked to lose.

 _"That does sound very you,"_ Neo said before something near the pathway to the household caught her eye. _"Hey, Sun's back!"_

Sure enough, there he was, after a fairly long time of shopping. The blonde monkey faunus had what had been requested of him, in addition to another purchase that was currently being carried by his right hand. A massive greatsword that Bakugo knew he would have trouble wielding; it simply looked that dense in weight.

But the look of determination on his face was not accompanied by a smile. This one was of pure, raw focus, something that Bakugo had never seen from Sun in any capacity before. It honestly kinda freaked him out. Judging by how Neo's once excited smile turned to a thin line of concern, she had noticed this as well.

Without a second more of hesitation, Bakugo leapt from the rooftop and landed with surprising grace as Sun continued to approach. He heard Neo follow him down with far less noise as he approached the blonde monkey faunus, asking, "Where the hell-"

"No time. Where's Blake? And Ghira?"

"Talking in his study. Why-"

"I saw the White Fang," Sun continued as he walked through the house with all the speed his legs would grant him, setting down his purchases in the entrance before picking up speed once again.

"Look, I'm not exactly comfortable with having them here either, especially after-"

"They had masks. Actual, combat-ready masks."

That gave Bakugo more than enough reason to shut up. Sun would never claim something this outlandish based on a mere hunch. Sure, he was a joker, but something like this? Never.

 _(meanwhile, Ghira's study, Blake's POV)_

Blake tried and failed to resist the sigh of content that came to her lips as she returned the firm yet gentle embrace of her father. For so long she had doubted her place here, felt as though she had done too much damage for her parents to truly be this welcoming. She had never been so happy to be proven wrong.

And yet, the face of a certain blonde boy came to her mind, and a question that had been burning in the back of her head came to the forefront.

"... hey, dad?"

"What is it?" her father asked as they shifted out of the embrace, letting her take up a space beside him on the sofa so that they could have more of a conversation. With a brief moment to take a breath and prepare herself, she asked her question.

"You... don't seem to like Sun that much. And I don't know why," Blake said. "I know he's not exactly the easiest person to get along with, but he does mean well."

Ghira sat back, crossing his arms instinctually as he sighed. "I don't hate the boy. In fact, his type are so few that seeing him simply be who he is can often be a refreshing sight. I know that's not a ringing endorsement, considering I'm naturally stone-faced, but... I don't hate him.

"But I do fear for him. He reminds me of... of Adam. Before everything else that happened. Before humans... I do not condone killing, but the day _that_ happened was one of the few times I ever came close to breaking my code; the anger was so potent. I can see that he wishes to speak of something, but he hides it away behind a fake smile and hollow laughter. I want to help him, but every time I come close to making the decision... I can't help but think back to that time. I... failed. I couldn't set Adam on the right path, and I fear the same fate may be in store for Sun."

"Then help him," Blake said. "I know I'm not the best with this kind of stuff, but Sun isn't Adam. They may be similar, but they're nowhere near the same person."

A rapid knock then came at their door, breaking the conversation as Ghira excused himself and went to answer it. At the entrance to the study was Sun himself, with Bakugo and Neo at his back. Given the urgency with which he'd managed to get there, and the outright serious look on his face, it was likely something serious.

"What's wrong?" Ghira asked as he let them into the study.

"The Fang is here. And I'm not talking about the Albains, I saw combat-ready Fang members. With masks," Sun said as he pulled out his scroll. "I know they're not the best resolution, but I managed to get a few pictures of the people I saw. They didn't see me, so they don't know about these."

Ghira took the scroll from Sun and slowly went through the photos one by one, his face growing more and more serious as he went through them. Then, his eyes went wide as he looked at the photo of their seeming leader, the one with the thin, horned mask.

"... dad?" Blake asked as she went to see what he was looking at, only for her own eyes to widen...

 _Ilia..._

Ghira sighed as he closed the scroll, giving it back to Sun. "Thank you for bringing this to my attention. You did well. I'll meet with Corsac and Fennec in a few day's time, and I'll ask what they know of the matter. They have usually been some of the only voices of reason within the Fang these days. I can't order a full-on search until something immediately threatening happens; it would cause too much of a panic otherwise, and assumptions will be made.

"But I can assure you that not being aggressive is not the same as being unwilling to defend ourselves. Now, go get some rest. You look quite tired," Ghira said. Surprisingly, Sun had been silent for the entire explanation, which only further caused Blake's concern to grow. Sun was quite the optimist and one of the most outspoken people she knew after... after Yang. This kind of quiet felt unnatural coming from him.

But still, the blonde monkey faunus nodded as he pocketed his scroll and left the room without another word.

"... be honest with me. How long have you suspected he's been holding something back?" Ghira asked everyone.

"Since the ship. I was asking about his team, and before he got to answer he kinda lost a lot of his energy. Then the Leviathan attacked, so I didn't get the chance to bring it up to him again," Bakugo said.

"I... Oum, I fucked up," Blake whispered to herself as she slapped her forehead repeatedly in self-loathing. "Stupid, stupid, dense idiot. Couldn't even see your friend was in pain-"

A hand suddenly stopped her from continuing that course of action. And it wasn't Bakugo's, or her father's. It was Neo, who gently set her hand at her side as she made some basic signs that roughly translated: _"You don't need to know what's going through everyone's head all the time. That's unrealistic. Help him the best you can. As his friend. It's never too late to lend a hand, got it?"_

Blake, momentarily caught off guard by this kind of sentiment from the girl who had once tried to kill her, shook her head and steadied herself. Regardless of their history, she was still right in that matter.

"Don't think this means I've forgiven you," Blake said. "You've still got a very long road ahead of you for that."

" _Wouldn't dare to think otherwise,"_ Neo signed back with her signature smirk, her illusionary horns shimmering ever so slightly in the light, enough to be noticed by someone who was actually looking.

And then, the silence was broken by the sound of fighting breaking out just outside the Belladonna home. It seemed as though the immediate threat had arrived far sooner than anyone had hoped. Without a moment more to waste, they rushed out into the night. Where the sounds of battle would greet them.

 **A/N: And that's a wrap for this one! Sorry if it isn't as polished as the others are. I had work training for about a week, and I didn't have a whole lot of time to actually write in that timeframe. I'll be sure to make the next one as good as I can! And now:**

 **Review Responses:**

 **Thunder Dragon: Indeed they are, even if they haven't quite figured out how to express those feelings yet.**

 **Kaiser Dragon: Yes, yes it is.**

 **Odin's Eye: Yeah. If it were possible, I would've made the chapter longer, but I think it was long enough as it was.**

 **KongKing94: I always thought that Jaune would be confused as to his feelings for Pyrrha after everything that happened, and that thought experiment led me to that interaction with Lancelot.**

 **Uruk-Hai: Well, it was only a few days ago, and she could glean from context that it was clearly eating at him and that he felt terrible for not telling her sooner. I think that Yang can be a lot more understanding then people give her credit for, even if her anger can override that side of her personality at times.**

 **Enku: Indeed, though it may be a while before they have the time to get it. I'm personally not a fan of 'I'm the only person who can help you' romances because that requires a lot of assumptions to be made about both people.**

 **While Izuku and Yang will be there for one another and help where they can, they also know that they're not trained psychiatrists, and even if they were, they don't have the professional distance required for this kind of thing since they're best friends and have a lot of sexual and emotional tension between them.**

 **That shouldn't diminish their feelings though, because they are very real and will likely come to fruition by or shortly before the end of the fourth Volume.**

 **King Ceasar Jr: Yeah. It's actually quite the weight. And yes, it will come. Slowly but surely. This is Bakugo we're talking about, after all.**

 **Leviathan's Heir: He's come clean as much as he can. Now, time to tell the others. And Bakugo, once he catches up to them.**

 **And now, this.**

 **Disclaimer: I do not own the original joke this was derived from. It belongs to PurpleEyesWTF. Please support the official parody.**

Omake: I'm at Dust (Non-Canon)

Shoto sighed as all the options they seemingly had at the start crumbled away. The avalanche had blocked off their mountain route, and the airships were still in emergency mode. Time to let Jaune know. It didn't take long for him to pick up.

"Hello?"

" _Hey, what's up?"_

"I need your help to break some news to Ren. Could you come over here?"

" _I can't. I'm buying more clothes."_

"Alright, well then hurry up and get over here."

" _I can't find them."_

"... what do you mean you can't find them."

" _I can't find them, there's only Dust."_

"... what do you mean there's only Dust?"

" _I mean there's only Dust."_

"Well then get out of the Dust aisle!"

" _Alright! You don't have to shout at me!"_

…

" _... there's more Dust!"_

"What do you mean there's more Dust?!"

" _I mean there's just more Dust!"_

"Go into the next aisle!"

...

" _There's still Dust!"_

"Where are you right now?!"

" _I'm at Dust!"_

"What do you mean you're at Dust?!"

" _I mean I'm at Dust!"_

"WHAT STORE ARE YOU IN?!"

" _I'M AT THE DUST SHOP!"_

"WHY ARE YOU BUYING CLOTHES AT A DUST SHOP?!"

" _FUCK YOU!"_

Eventually, Jaune managed to find his way back from the Dust shop with clothes in hand. Somehow. Shoto didn't bother to ask why a Dust shop would sell clothes- wait, it was Schnee branded clothing. Nevermind.

 **Hope you all enjoyed that!**

 **Next Chapter: Jun 28** **th**

 **Seeya in the next one!**


	53. Smoke, Mirrors, and Shrapnel

**A/N: Alright, just gonna finish up this scene here and-**

 ***notification***

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…

… **YES! YES! WOOHOO! 600 FAVORITES! THANK YOU ALL! YOU'RE AMAZING! ENJOY!**

 **Disclaimer: I do not own RWBY or My Hero Academia. They belong to Monty Oum, Kohei Horikoshi, and their respective publishing companies. Please support the official release.**

 **I do not own the cover image.**

Chapter 53: Smoke, Mirrors, and Shrapnel

Tenya would never claim to be an absolute master in the art of combat. Sure, he was highly skilled within his field, he would never deny that aspect of his life, but he knew firsthand that there were many people in the world who were far stronger than he was. Case in point: the fact that Momo and Weiss were currently kicking his metaphorical ass.

While he had indeed asked for this type of matchup; he figured it was only fair seeing as Weiss had asked him and Momo to do the same only yesterday; it didn't mean he enjoyed getting beaten all the same. He had pride in his fighting abilities, he was just better at keeping it under wraps than a certain explosive partner of his.

A counter kick to the base of Momo's formed staff left him open to a parting slash from Weiss, causing him to skid across the floor with a slight, tooth-baring smile making its way across his lips. He dug his left leg into the ground beneath him, the engine held within revving up to full power as his heavy caliber pistols were drawn at his sides.

As soon as he was sure the girls were ready for his prepared onslaught, Tenya charged forward with the might of his Recipro engines behind every step, flipping himself through the air as he aimed for a weak spot in Weiss' defense, something that they'd been trying to work on for the past several days. Fortunately, she seemed to have learned from the previous bouts, dodging the initial kick and attempting to counter with Myrtenaster.

Recipro's still active boost prevented this, however, causing the tip to just barely miss his thigh as he prepared a countering shot with his left pistol, taking care to aim at Momo with his right as he fired both pistols at once. Weiss, not quite gaining the skill to summon a full construct within the bounds of her control just yet, settled for the halfway point, instead bringing forth a massive gauntlet that honestly reminded him of Lancelot to block the bullet.

It was also at this time that he noticed Momo had quickly grown a wide sheet of metal to protect herself from the shot, a large indention appearing where it landed as she took the opportunity to fling another of her creations at him. It happened to be one of her favorites, and the one that he and Weiss were quite wary of: a large, target constricting capture net.

And what ho, the net just so happened to be doing its job well, catching Tenya by the ankle and quickly enveloping the rest of his body. Still, he wasn't about to give up so easily, and continued with his Recipro Burst until he finally managed to free himself and-

 **CLICK! CLICK! CLUNK!**

And he was then reminded once more that his new legs were not his old ones, locking him in place as he finally let his heavy breaths leave his chest. When he turned to the clock in the room, he saw that it had been ten whole minutes since their spar had begun. Not quite as long as Weiss' two v one spar, which lasted for twelve, but it was a respectable time to hold nonetheless. Especially since these were two of the strongest people he had ever encountered.

"Break?" Weiss asked with a similar breathlessness. Though Momo didn't show it, both Weiss and Tenya knew that she was likely as tired as they were.

"Please," Tenya quickly replied with a slight smile on his face. Oh well. Even if he didn't quite have enough strength to walk or fight unimpeded quite yet, it was still quite an enjoyable experience, getting to spar once more. With the assistance of the two girls, he was eased back into his wheelchair once more, a satisfied, relieved sigh escaping his lips as he allowed his legs to rest.

"Okay, let's go over what worked and what needs improvement," Momo said, ever willing to further strengthen both her friends and herself. "I think we can all agree that my reaction time could be faster. Honestly, if I hadn't anticipated Tenya's attack, he probably would've hit me right in the forehead, thank Oum for Aura."

"True though that may be, your assessment of the situation was rather quick. You even managed to get that net out particularly fast," Tenya said.

"Well, it's a useful item. I try to keep one or two on hand, whenever the need for it arises," Momo said a bit sheepishly.

"I suppose it's my turn, now. I think my biggest problems right now are stamina and accuracy," Weiss said. "I had two glaringly large opportunities to get you and I managed to miss them both. And I'm still no good in a drawn-out battle. Hell, the only reason I managed to last longer than you last time was because of my summoning, if I can even call it that. I can barely bring out the arms of my knight."

"Speaking of which, how did you manage to use them in such a... bizarrely creative fashion?" Momo asked, referring to how Weiss had thought to split the armor up and use the connected pieces to extend her reach. The only reason they'd managed to win that day was that Tenya had managed to get a shot through a gap in her defense and Momo got a capture net around her before she could recover.

"I... may have taken a few notes from Jaune and Lancelot," Weiss admitted with an embarrassed flush to her face. Considering her initially rocky relationship with the boy, Tenya didn't exactly blame her for acting embarrassed.

"Who's Jaune?" Momo asked.

"A fellow classmate and hunter in training. He and Weiss... didn't exactly hit it off right away," Tenya explained.

"We got better though! We never talked much, but we were on better terms," Weiss quickly interjected. This was... unexpected.

Tenya simply wrote it off and then gave his own thoughts, "In spite of your stamina problem, you're actually quite agile and fairly good at traps and misdirection. Not to mention your knowledge of Dust. If we work some more on your few weak points, you could well take on a few platoons without breaking a sweat."

"Thanks for the vote of confidence," Weiss replied.

"Alright. Well, I think we can all agree I'm the weakest link in this team," Tenya said. He knew that they would deny it, but he continued on anyways. "I have the most blatant and exploitable weakness in my radiators, and I'm still not up to my full strength yet. Not to mention the fact that I'm still getting used to this new style."

"That's... unfortunately accurate," Momo agreed with reluctance in her voice. "You certainly have both the strength and speed advantage, but until we can find a way to reduce the drawbacks of your legs, you'll have to use your full speed sparingly."

"Personally, I think that this change in combat styles will give you a lot more versatility," Weiss said. "It might not seem like much now, but if you're going to be an all range fighter, it will be a great help to you. If you keep at it, you'll probably be able to actually run circles around us. Might be a viable combat strategy..."

"Of course, there are plenty of ways to counter that," Momo said.

"True enough. Want to call it for today?" Tenya asked the others.

"Well, it would likely be for the best. Personally, I think you're all wasting your time, but who am I to judge?"

The group's attention was then drawn to the originator of that snide comment: Whitley, leaning against the frame of the doorway as though he couldn't care less. Tenya had hardly seen the boy in days, what with the constant 'lessons' he'd been receiving from his father. He seemed apathetic and jovially discontent, ready to stir up trouble at a moment's notice, but there was still that same concern and worry veiled behind his otherwise cold, merciless blue eyes.

"Whitley. How long have you been there?" Weiss asked as she stood.

"Long enough to know you really don't have a full grasp of the situation you're in," he replied. "If you three really think that father hasn't accounted for an escape attempt, you'd be sorely mistaken."

"... what do you mean?" Momo asked as she stood in turn, causing Tenya to fully turn his chair towards the conversation at hand.

Whitley then continued. "Apparently, he finally noticed that Weiss' rebellious streak isn't going to stop because of a stern talking to. So, he has taken it upon himself to hire a few independent contractors to... 'ensure her safety.'"

Of course, the three of them knew how to read between those lines. They were meant to keep them, specifically Weiss, in check, to make sure they stayed where he could see them.

"Why are you telling us this?" the former heiress in question asked. "You've... never even liked me. And you certainly never liked Winter."

A brief flash of hurt came to Whitley's eyes, disappearing as quickly as it came before he answered her. "I figured it would only be fair, seeing as you know so little as it is. Before you assume jealousy is the reason I don't like Winter... I've honestly never been jealous of either of you. Truth be told, I find all the fighting... barbaric, in a sense. Sure, it might be necessary in certain moments, but after that... what's even the point? And yes, there are many benevolent reasons for fighting out there, but there's a myriad of selfish and evil ones."

"Then we shall simply seek more good causes to fight for," Tenya said. "And if we cannot find one, we shall simply establish our own."

Whitely sighed and chuckled at his declaration. "I figured as much. You don't seem like one who would give up easily."

"What can I say? An old friend rubbed off on me," Tenya replied with a genuine smile, slight though it was.

"... well, I suppose I should leave you all to it, then," Whitley said as he began to exit the room.

"Wait a second!" Weiss said. "You specified Winter. Why her?"

A few moments of silence.

"... she raised you up, taught you to be better than our parents. I will always be grateful to her for that, if nothing else. It's... a shame, then, that she could not do the same for me. That she could not look past... my condition," Whitley said as he absentmindedly rubbed the palm of one of his hands, decorated only by a single, thin scar. "To this day, I wonder if the worst of our father's influence got through to her... or if she held those reservations long before he truly attempted to control her. I'm honestly not sure which is worse.

"The reason I don't like Winter, dear sister, was because she never even gave me a chance to try. To prove myself better. After all, what could a Fractured possibly do to help her?"

The silence after he left was only made more deafening by the echo of his heeled shoes against the cold marble floor as he walked away. That... Tenya knew Whitley had likely been through the wringer, but this... it seemed even Weiss didn't know that it led to this extent.

After a few more seconds of shocked silence, the former heiress' look of shock turned to determination as she turned heel and made her way to the center of the room, a determined echo to every step that she made towards her destination. She raised Myrtenaster in both hands and, with all the strength her dainty arms possessed, stabbed it into the floor, burying the blade halfway into the floor itself, causing a web of cracks of appear where the blow landed as a massive glyph flickered to life in front of it.

Emerging from that same glyph, larger than any of them had ever seen it, was the knight she'd told stories of defeating. The reason for the scar over her left eye. With armor shimmering in a ghostly mist, hands gripping a massive blade that only Lancelot could ever hope of matching, was that very same knight. And, with a royal humility, it knelt before its queen.

Unfortunately, Weiss could not return the gesture of respect, primarily because she was tired enough that she was actually taking in deep gulps of air. What Whitley had said, while not kind, had spurred her onward. For the first time, she had summoned consciously. If only for a few seconds.

As the knight disappeared into the same mist that had created it, Tenya and Momo made their way over to her, and got her to one of the nearby chairs so that she could rest for a while.

"... hey..." Weiss said with bated breath, still exhausted from the full summoning. "Do we... have room... for a slight change of plans?"

"... Weiss, it'll be hard enough to get just the three of us out of here," Momo said with sympathy in her voice. "Taking Whitley as well would simply be too much of a-"

"I don't care about that. I may not have really known him but... he's still my little brother. And I'd rather stay locked up here forever before I let him stay here, alone, and suffer in silence _again_ ," she responded. "I won't. I will not let myself make that mistake. Not again."

A brief flash of Tensei's kind and ever knowing smile flashed before Tenya's eyes, his eyes tinged with a protective edge.

"... it'll be difficult. We don't know if he'll even wish to come with us," he said, agreeing with her wishes, but cautious of the changes it would bring all the same.

"I know. But for once, I want him to know that I haven't given up on him. He deserves that," Weiss said. "I think I'll rest now. You should too. We'll be leaving in about a week or two, so be prepared."

 _(meanwhile, at Pyrrha's statue, Shoto's POV)_

Shoto had to admit, whoever sculpted this piece had done a remarkable job in recreating Pyrrha's likeness. Even if it would never live up to the true image of their friend, it was still a comfort to know that so many people had loved her. Although...

"Are you sure those words are appropriate?" Shoto asked Jaune, referring to the final words on the plaque of her statue. "I know they mean 'Greatness from Small Beginnings,' but... it just doesn't seem to suit her, I guess."

"Yeah, that's what I thought at first too. They're more of a family thing, though," Jaune answered.

"I'm sensing a story," Shoto predicted.

"That there is," Jaune said as he began the tale. "Apparently, one of Pyrrha's ancestors started out as nothing but a common beggar, without even a name to call his own. When the Great War came around, he sided with a part of Mistral that was pretty progressive for its time, small though it was at that point. He chose the name Leonidas, and bit by bit, fought and thought and tricked his way to a respectable position of power. He was even granted his family's name, Nikos. 'Victory for the people.' But he always stayed humble, and constantly repeated the motto 'Sic Parvus Magnum.' It was a mantra and a warning, to never forget where he, and the family he built, had come from."

"... damn. That's quite the story," Shoto said with a bit of shock in his voice. "Wait... are you talking about _that_ Leonidas or-"

"Nah, it's just the name he chose when he signed up. Suited him, though," Jaune replied with a distant smile. "Definitely a military guy. The complete opposite of me. I'd probably crack within the first hour of training."

"Give yourself a bit more credit than that. I think you'd do fine, now," Shoto replied, remembering just how unprepared Jaune had been at the beginning of their year at Beacon.

"Maybe so, but I still don't think I'd take to the lifestyle too well. C'mon. We should get moving."

The half and half boy quickly complied and shrugged his bag more firmly onto his shoulders as they made their way toward the entrance of the statue's park, where the others had waited for them. It didn't take long for them to find the exit to the city and once more trek their way into the green, Grimm-infested lands of the Yuri Trail. Maybe they would even see Qrow. Only time could tell.

"Erm... hey, Shoto?" Ruby asked. "Could I talk to you for a minute?"

"Sure. What do you need?" he responded, slowing his pace to match with hers, though it wasn't much of an adjustment.

"I... I'm kinda scared," she admitted. "I know that's normal now, but I'm not scared of the Grimm. Haven't been since I first used Crescent Rose properly. I'm... worried about Yang and Izuku. I know that they'll probably be fine and I'm just being a worrywart at this point, but-"

"Ruby, it's okay to be worried about them. Honestly, I am too," Shoto said.

"That's not all I'm worried about," Ruby said. "What about that... secret that Izuku has? Qrow wouldn't tell us anything, so it's probably really personal, but... I'm scared that it'll change something. And that it'll drive a wedge between everyone, and we might start fighting and arguing and... I don't want to lose any more friends. Not now, not ever."

"... me too, Ruby," Shoto said in solemn understanding. "Me too."

 _(the previous night, Belladonna household, Sun's POV)_

For just once in his life, Sun had actually begun to enjoy the peace and quiet the night brought with it. It wasn't total silence, which would've probably driven him insane, but the same could be said if the night were nothing but noise. This was a good balance of the both of them.

And then someone had tried to shoot him. The bullet had grazed off of his cheek and embedded itself in the wood with a smoking hole and a sharp impact, and the blood was still rolling down his cheek when he spotted the attacker and leapt after them.

It took him even less time to grab the suddenly scrambling person and pin them to the ground. They were a literal jump away from him, after all; the gun they used hadn't been of a particularly high caliber.

"Who are you?" Sun said, having neither the patience nor the time to be shocked by his aggressiveness. "Why are you here?"

The person, a winged faunus judging by the movement on their back, gave no reply to that and only struggled against his hold even more. The blonde monkey faunus further tightened his hold, and whispered in a tone that just barely held back seething rage, "Do not make me repeat myself."

A sharp click alerted him to another's presence. He reacted by standing with his foot firm on his captive's back and his gunchucks drawn. He kept the left trained on the person beneath his foot, and had the right raised as he scanned the surrounding foliage.

Then someone got in their head that it would be a good idea to attack him from above. Not a bad idea, honestly, but one that he quickly managed to subvert by ducking out of the way of their attempted attack, losing his leverage in the process.

"Could've done that sooner," the one he'd captured said to his rescuer, finally allowed to stretch the bat wings resting on his shoulder blades.

"Well, I was trying to knock him out. Seems blondie's more perceptive than I thought," said his rescuer, a woman with grey hair and unnaturally grey skin that faded in on her arms... wait, were those holes in her palms?

"Okay, I really didn't want to repeat myself, but _who the hell are you and what are you doing here?_ " Sun asked again. He doubted they'd give their real names, but the Grimm masks covering most of their identifying features were more than enough evidence to suggest allegiance to the White Fang. Oum, just saying their title at that point just pissed him off.

"You sure you want an answer to that question?" the woman asked.

"Would I have bothered asking if I didn't?" Sun asked rhetorically.

"No," someone else said as a point was suddenly pressed into his back. "But it did distract you."

 _Three. That's the same amount I saw earlier, but there could be more around here. Wouldn't be surprised at this point._

The increased pressure at his back gave the silent message to drop his weapons, to which he reluctantly complied. If they were in a fair fight, he could probably win, but he'd been so angered that he hadn't even gotten his Aura fully up. That and he was at least smart enough to not intentionally anger the person that was holding a blade directly against his spine.

Then the door to the Belladonna household burst open.

"Sun! Are you-" was all that Bakugo managed to get out before the bat faunus shot at him and the grey-haired female... shot webs from her hands? Huh. He'd actually never seen that type of faunus before.

But, this quick distraction gave him the opportunity to quickly flip around and kick the person behind him in the side of the head, echoing with a loud crack as she tumbled into the foliage once again.

Just as he was about to go over and ensure she wouldn't get back up for a while, he was quickly forced to turn and counter an attack from the bat faunus, who, in complete contrast to his marksmanship, was surprisingly adept at hand to hand combat. After his initial attack, the bat faunus let out a barrage of calculated blows that took all of the dexterity he possessed to counter.

Eventually, he'd been pushed back so far that the heel of his foot was in the grass. Sensing an opportunity, he baited the bat faunus into what should've been a knockout strike, only to dodge at the last second and letting him overextend his punch, letting Sun easily grab onto the extended appendage and slam him into the ground.

It was then that he realized the one who'd held a blade to his back, her mask currently cracked into tiny pieces, was leaping at him as he finished the throw, when he would be unable to recover from the motion. It was then that he was saved by the timely arrival of Blake. Specifically, her boot arriving precisely in the red-haired girl's cheek and sending her tumbling away. If nothing else he left himself feel bad for that. Getting kicked in the face twice, not to mention in the same spot, Aura or not, was going to hurt like hell.

Oh well. She was part of the Fang, and they were hunters in training. It was an occupational hazard.

Relieved of the pressure of fighting for long enough to pick up his weapons, Sun quickly made his way to where he last saw Bakugo, knowing that Blake's strength in combat was more than enough to match against anything that girl could throw at her. But, it would also seem that his help here was unneeded, as Bakugo had long since escaped his bonds and was currently roaring his lungs out as explosions cracked and ripped forth from his palms.

When the spider faunus tried to counter this, however, Neo made herself known by cracking Melodic Cudgel across the girl's face and then tripping her with a sliding sweep kick, lining her up perfectly for a follow through ax-head kick that broke the girl's Aura the moment she landed with a loud crack.

The bat faunus, who was a lot tougher than Sun had initially thought he was, suddenly got a strike in to the side of the monkey faunus' torso, though he managed to dodge the follow up and began a barrage not so dissimilar from the one that he had practiced that same morning, his arms whipping and thrashing about in tandem with his weapons as buckshot flew from the chambers with echoing blasts, stopping as he suddenly switched into the weapon's second form and cracking him once, twice, and many more times across his torso, arms, and legs, and finally delivered a morbidly satisfying downward strike to the crown of the bat faunus' head, sending him crashing into the dirt.

"Ilia?" Blake asked in surprise, recognizing the now neon colored girl, her once slightly tanned skin and dark red hair turning to shades of yellow and red respectively, the splatter of freckles across her face and body reflecting the same color that her hair now held.

"... this is not how I wanted this to go," she said as Bakugo leapt over with a wild strike, barely dodging as the smoke still plumed from the ashen blonde's palms. Using the opportunity this opened, she quickly made her way to Sun and unleashed the full force of her whip-rapier, forcing him to split his weapons into gunchucks once more in order to counter them properly.

He would've called for a bit of backup, but that was when he noticed that the Fang's cavalry had arrived. Ten more grunts, armed to the teeth, had shown up on the scene, and they were actually keeping the others fairly busy as they tried to dispatch of them.

That was also when Sun noticed that there were an additional two grunts trying to get the bat and spider faunus' out of the crossfire, to which he had to respectfully disagree. If they managed to capture even one of them, the information they could provide would prove invaluable.

And so, with a massive dual blast from his gunchucks, Sun spun around and launched himself into a wide kick, catching both of the rescuers off guard as they were sent flying into the forest. Now that that was taken-

 **SHINK!**

…

Time seemed to slow as Sun looked down at the wound in his shoulder, barely able to register it as he heard the hollow click of a trigger. The pain that he felt suddenly erupted from the wound and quickly spread to the rest of his body. He would've thought he'd been paralyzed were it not for the fact that he was barely keeping himself from falling into a heap on the ground. He might've heard someone calling out his name, but he couldn't tell with the ringing in his ears that accompanied the pain. Someone ese, he was guessing it was this 'Ilia,' had harshly told Sun to stay down.

Unfortunately, his body was beginning to comply, his arms losing more and more of their strength as he was suddenly a hair's breadth from the ground. Damnit, he wasn't supposed to... wasn't... supposed...

 _A pillar of stone in a mountain glade, cracking open to reveal a stone sphere._

 _The sphere rising above to the shifting blades of grass as it too split itself open._

 _A golden band, made to fit the head of any who would dare bare the burden._

 _A massive red pillar with golden dragons engraved into it, suddenly shrinking to the size of a staff._

 _An urn that was only associated with pain and fury._

 _And the flames of a ruined city all around him as he tried so desperately to save someone. And failed all the same._

A fist was suddenly formed in his panic, slamming into the earth beneath him, bringing him out of his shock. As fast as the pain would let him, he reached across and gripped the tail of the whip in one hand and suddenly wrenched it towards him. That caused Ilia to lurch forwards and giving him ample opportunity to deliver a body strike so hard that she literally flew into a palm tree, a crack and sizzle queuing the break of her Aura.

And with that, he was spent, wasting no time in dropping to the ground after his final display of strength. The last he heard was someone large landing from the balcony above them, standing, and giving a roar so loud and base that he could feel it reverberate through his chest.

And then came the darkness of unconsciousness.

 _(meanwhile, somewhere in Anima, Oscar's POV)_

The menial labor of the day had just been finished up, the freckled boy giving a satisfied sigh as he wiped his brow of sweat. This was good. The scarecrow was back up, and seedlings were starting to sprout, and if everything stayed smooth, they'd be looking at a plentiful harvest within the next few months.

" _I must admit, completing a hard day's work often feels satisfying,"_ he heard a certain headmaster say within the confines of his mind. _"Just don't let it get away from you, alright?"_

Oscar rolled his eyes as he responded, _I know, I know. Right now, I just want to go inside, have a nice, long bath in silence, and sleep. After dinner's done._

" _I do wonder how much you'll eat this time..."_

 _I'm a growing guy! I get really hungry._

 _"I'm not teasing you. I'm legitimately curious."_

 _I'll believe that when you finally drop the sarcastic tone._

 _"I was often told I had resting sarcasm voice."_

Apparently, this had not been a 'sleep it off' kind of deal. As soon as he'd woken up the day after meeting the mysterious man, Ozpin had greeted him the same way a parent would a waking child. The man then proceeded to accompany and observe him as the days went on, offering advice here and there that Oscar would reluctantly try and often succeed with.

That wasn't to say they didn't have their problems. He could count the number of times he'd accidentally responded verbally to Ozpin's advice within the last few days on two sets of hands. It had caused a lot of confusion and he was fairly sure that his aunts were thinking of sending him to a therapist.

Either way, he was stuck with this voice inside of his head, whether he liked it or not.

But that was neither here nor there. Oscar slung his hoe over his shoulder, as he had so many times before, and started making his way to the barn.

" _Stop."_

Oscar immediately complied. In the few days that he'd known Ozpin, the man had never sounded this serious. That was when he heard a low growl from a nearby oak tree. Out of the corner of his eye, he could barely see the black and bone white visage of a Beowolf, an unholy smoke draped over it like a shroud. He wanted to be a hunter, but right now? He was just a kid. And that Grimm was terrifying.

 _What the hell do I do-_

" _First, we remain calm. Second... I believe you'll need to be running to your homestead within the next four seconds."_

 _From what?!_

" _You'll see. And whatever happens,_ _do not drop that tool_ _. You may need it."_

As if on queue, an Alpha Beowolf came barreling on front of the scout and started charging him, giving him all the motivation he needed to follow Ozpin's advice as he sprinted for the homestead with all the speed his legs possessed.

"Bank left," Ozpin aid when they were only halfway to their destination, to which Oscar quickly obliged, almost sliding as he turned sharply just before their field. The Beowolf from before saw this and quickly followed, being lighter than its Alpha and able to adjust its course more easily.

"When its close enough, swing that thing with everything you have," Ozpin said as Oscar continued to run, the Grimm practically biting at his heels as he turned and smacked the thing across its bone mask with as much strength as his admittedly spindly arms could muster.

A hollow crack was the result as the Grimm was flung onto its back, surprising both the Grimm and especially the boy who'd just done the deed. When the Beowolf got itself back up, a web of cracks had formed where he had struck it, and a chunk of flesh was missing as well. But the price for that small victory was the fury of a Beowolf who looked as though it was going to enjoy consuming him far more than it rightly should.

 _What do I do, what do I do, what-_

" _Be calm, my boy. Everything is going to be okay."_

 _But-_

Before the frightened boy could finish his thought, however, a distinctly female roar filled the space, and the crack of buckshot could be heard for at least half a mile. That was quickly followed by the howling of the wind and the sound of steel passing through flesh. And then, the Grimm were dead, fading to ash on the very same ground which they'd planned to stain with his blood.

In front of him were two hunters, one with a mane of long golden hair with matching bracers and vivid violet eyes, and one with a messy mop of green and black, his cloak settling around him as his he tried to lift himself from the grass littered ground with his blade.

Oscar quickly went over to catch him before he fell and called for his aunts, only to see that he needn't have bothered. Beth was armed with her shotgun and quickly scanned the area for any more Grimm, while Shino, her arm still bound in a cast, assisted him in carrying them into the house and preparing them for treatment.

And then, when they had been placed on the two largest tables they had, Oscar finally recognized them. Izuku Midoriya and Yang Xiao Long. Finalists in the Vytal Tournament and two of the strongest hunters in training that he had ever seen. But that begged another question.

How in the hell did Ozpin know they were coming?

 **A/N: And that's a wrap on this one! These are taking longer than I'd like to get out, but I should hopefully have the next one ready in shorter order. And now:**

 **Review Responses:**

 **Thunder Dragon: Yeah, and that was a very powerful scene, but I wanted to try something a bit different when we eventually get there. Plus, I kinda had to compromise since I already said she lived in Athens, which is in the southern part of Mistral, but she still trained in Argos, which is in the northern part of Mistral. I thought it would make sense if they also built a similar statue of her in Athens, since it's where she was born in this story. So, that's basically a long way of me explaining why that particular scene is so much earlier than it was in the show.**

 **Odin's Eye: It's... well, you'll find out soon, but I'll warn you now, it's kinda dark.**

 **Enku: Thank you! I liked the idea of Sun meeting another hunter who'd lost something, and that shopping scene was the perfect chance for me to put it in.**

 **Kaiser Dragon: Well, it's not like she'll have to drag Sun across the finish line. Sun may need a bit of an initial push, but he'll get through this. And I promise I'll make that scene as heartwarming as I can.**

 **KongKing94: I thought a bit of conversational backstory would be entertaining. Hope you liked it!**

 **Uruk-Hai: Thank you! Sun's always been one of my favorites, and I thought this could be a good road to travel down. Story-wise, I mean, maybe not so much for his mental health.**

 **King Ceasar Jr: Well, they weren't expecting the attack, but once Ghira shows up... well, let's just say that his version of pacifism doesn't discourage self-defense or the defense of others.**

 **Leviathan's Heir: Here it is! Hope you liked it.**

 **Gojifreak: Got that for ya!**

 **Black Fang: Indeed!**

 **Mecha Manda: The possibility is certainly there, and will get stronger with time, but for the moment they're just oddly comfortable friends.**

 **DD Lore Nerd: Well... I mean, it's not going to be a total dry well in terms of pairs, but they're not all going to get together all at once. Though I do promise that one of them will get together within the next... three to four-ish chapters or so.**

 **Guest 1: Well, it seemed a bit too ridiculous to actually happen. Even if it was absolutely hilarious.**

 **CaptainBorisson: Thanks! I always kinda wanted to try something like this, so, here's the start of this particular rabbit hole I will be going down. And yes, I've always wanted to do a variation on that joke, and I saw to perfect opportunity.**

 **Phoenix Wizard: That they have. And yes, you are right to be worried.**

 **Also, Uruk-Hai! I think his suggestion could actually be pretty cool. Do you think we could put this in without messing stuff up?**

 **Madmagusmax: That all really depends on how things turn out.**

 **Guest 2: I actually had that thought in mind, and explained why it was there at all as best I could.**

 **Next Chapter: Jul. 12** **th**

 **Seeya in the next one!**


	54. Cautious Respite

**A/N: This is a good day. Fire Emblem: Three Houses is coming out at the end of the month, I'm steadily making my way through A Song of Ice and Fire (hoping against hope that Winds of Winter will be out by the time I'm done with A Dance with Dragons [a long way off to say the least]), my passion for classic anime was recently reawakened with Trigun and Cowboy Bebop, and we've now passed 700 reviews.**

 **These are several things that I never thought would happen in my life, especially when I started writing this story. At this point, all the bombastic praise available to my still expanding vocabulary wouldn't be enough to show just how much that means to me. So... thank you. I hope you enjoy the chapter, and have a wonderful day.**

 **Also: Gore and Violence warning for the flashback scene in this chapter. Viewer discretion is advised. If you're uncomfortable with that kind of thing, this is one of two warnings.**

 **Disclaimer: I do not own RWBY or My Hero Academia. They belong to Monty Oum, Kohei Horikoshi, and their respective publishing companies. Please support the official releases.**

 **I do not own the cover image.**

Chapter 54: Cautious Respite

Izuku had awoken with a murky mind, disoriented as to just where he was. With a great deal of effort, he lifted himself from where he laid with his eyes half-opened, bringing a hand up to rub his face and return blood flow to his eyelids. That was also when his free hand shot down to his side to clutch at a particularly sore spot on his lower torso, the clouds in his mind slightly parting at the suddenness of the pain.

 _Kinda regretting going after that Beowolf pack right now,_ he thought to himself. It wasn't as though he and Yang hadn't been unprepared to deal with them. Hell, from the vantage point they initially had, it would've seemed foolish not to pounce on the opportunity that had appeared before them. However, that never meant they could be prepared for absolutely everything. Namely the fact that the pack had been much larger than they'd thought, with two Alphas in the main group and a Great Alpha almost the size of an Ursa to bring them all in line.

That had been a hard fight. But there had been a town not far from where the pack was. It would've had to be a fairly mid-sized rural community, and quite closely knit with a few veteran hunters and soldiers at hand if they'd managed to survive this long without help from Mistral. At least, that's what they had guessed at a first glance. They didn't really know how the town worked, not even the name of the place was known to them. Yet they decided to protect them all the same.

And still Izuku lifted himself from the bed and dragged himself to the door of this strange place, the details of the room he'd been lifted into already fading from his mind. He needed to make sure she was alright. There was no way she was dead, Yang was too damn stubborn and too damn tough to let herself get killed by Beowolves, but he felt an overwhelming need to see her face. Then he could let himself rest properly.

There was a problem with this plan, however. Izuku's sense of balance seemed to have left him in his sleep, as his wounds ached badly enough to almost deliberately keep him at as slow a pace as possible. Every third step with his right foot demanded that he lean against the wall for support. He didn't regret trying out that new technique, since it had succeeded in what it was meant to do, but he had not thought through how exactly he was going to land afterward.

The sound of feet clattering up the stairs didn't stop Izuku's slow but steady forward progress. However, whoever had come up did save him from a painful fall, though they groaned under their breath with the effort it took them to sit him in a stool that had been left in the hallway.

The boy who had helped him was now clearly visible to him now, with black hair and a thin frame edging towards lean from what he assumed to be farm work. He only got the slightest glance at his mixed hazel eyes, though he could see flecks of green within both of his pupils. In fact, it was upon seeing those for even the barest second that activated Process for the first time in days. The gaps between activations, conscious or otherwise, were slowly but surely starting to get closer together.

The boy's soul seemed normal at a glance, the almost metallic hazel coloration he saw emanating from the sphere telling him that this boy already had quite the strength of character. He might make a good hunter, but that wasn't for Izuku to decide. But then he saw a second orb overtake the first, a light green hue, familiar yet foreign, emanating from it.

It didn't take him much longer than that to realize they were circling each other, always staying within the confines of the boy's chest. He had two souls. At the very least, that was what it appeared to be. Izuku didn't have much longer to observe this, the boy rushing downstairs to alert everyone to his awakening, but the green-haired inheritor would have to ask him about what he'd just seen later. Process had never failed him once, but that didn't mean he understood all the ins and outs of how it worked.

Not yet, at least.

The first to come back up the stairs looked battle-hardened enough, with a jagged scar that ran from her right temple to just below her left eye marring her otherwise average face. Her skin was lightly tanned and splattered with freckles that were particularly intense around the bridge of her nose and shoulders. She had bright red hair was held in a high, short tail, which, in addition to a pair of worn jeans dotted with holes and a similarly weathered tank top, gave an air of preparedness, even in what he assumed was her home. Izuku did not want to cross this woman, despite her shorter than average stature and seemingly thin but lean frame. Literally everything else about her were signs pointed towards an experienced fighter. Maybe even a huntress at some point.

However, she was also the first to check his pulse and test his senses, and went through a few other quick checks that Izuku knew weren't in the first aid training he and some of the others had undergone. She had probably been the one to bandage him up like this. He could only assume that Yang was in a similar boat, wherever she was at the moment.

The second woman who came up the staircase looked to be of a similar age of the woman who had finished making sure he wasn't in any danger; late-twenties to early thirties; with a head of brown-red hair done in a chin-length bob cut and a pair of thin, diagonal scars lined with almost perfect symmetry across her cheekbones, nearly invisible to an untrained eye. She stood a head and a half taller than the other, and in contrast wore a dark brown turtleneck sweater and form-fitting black pants, in addition to heeled leather shoes. One of her arms was actually in a cast, and judging from the fact that she seemed unfamiliar with navigating with only her other arm, it was definitely her dominant one.

"How's he doing?" she asked.

The one who checked him quickly stood back up and answered, "A bit out of it for now, but otherwise he seems fine."

Izuku tried to speak, nervous about the whereabouts of his blonde partner, but his voice was weak, and barely left his throat in a slight rasp. His throat felt parched and dry, as though he hadn't drunk anything for at least a full three days.

"Hey, relax," the taller woman said as she handed him a glass of water. "Drink it slowly. Don't want you retching it up."

Despite his apparent and immediate dehydration, Izuku did as she asked and drank it slowly, the coolness clearing his head as he finally had a clear mind and a wet throat to speak.

"Well... guess we should get introductions out of the way. I'm Beth," the shorter woman said. "The idiot with the cast is Shino."

"Hey..." Shino said in mock-threat while Beth held a sly smirk on her face. "... fine, I'll give you that one."

"... it's nice to meet you. I'm Izuku," the green-haired inheritor replied. "Sorry to be so abrupt, but is Yang okay?"

"The blonde one? As far as we know, she's still in the room we put her in," Shino said. "She'll probably be up soon if she's not awake already."

"Can I see her?"

"Sure. But once she's up, we're going to ask you some questions," Beth said. "You know, the standard 'why are you here' stuff."

After that, Izuku was led to where Yang was currently resting, a room on the same floor near the mid-point of the hallway. The caretakers allowing him to enter the room alone, as they sensed he wished to. The room itself was fairly simple: smoothed over oak wood with a few decorations and features scattered scarcely about it, and a single bookshelf that barely came up to his waist. Two moderately sized windows sat at the edge of the room, letting sunlight filter in and catch the dust particles in the air, making them look as though they were glowing gold in the soft rays.

And in the bed placed in one of the far corners of the room, staring down at the blankets that still covered her lower half, was Yang, who was currently covering the scar on her right arm with her other hand, as though she was afraid someone might come in and ask questions once they saw it. Luckily, it didn't take more than a second for Izuku to find the rust-colored bandanna on a small table against the wall, his footsteps quiet as he plucked it from the surface and made his way over to the blonde brawler.

"I believe this is yours?" Izuku asked, a smile inching its way across his face when Yang turned to him, almost sighing in relief as she gave a similar smile.

"It is indeed, my good sir. It's got plus five resistance to flame damage, so I would much appreciate having it back on my arm," Yang quickly quipped back, referencing her unusual comfort with hot temperatures over the past few months.

The bandanna was quickly exchanged, and Yang wasted no time in tying it over her scar. Or she would've if not for the fact that, thanks to the bandages, her movements were pretty stiff, making her unable to finish the knot.

"You... need some help with that?" Izuku quietly offered.

"No, thanks. I can... do thish myshelf..." she responded as she finally got the other end in her mouth. This also caused a needle of pain to suddenly lodge itself in her neck, causing her to drop the bandanna as her hand moved to where she felt it spring from. "Damnit!"

"... I'll take that help now," Yang relented as she massaged the spot of pain on her neck.

Izuku chuckled at that as he moved to put the bandanna back onto her arm, wrapping it twice over and gently giving it a neat knot. "There we are. Good as new."

"Thanks," Yang said. "... so, can we both agree that not having a full grasp of the pack's size was kinda stupid on our part?"

"Yeah, I'm really sorry about that. I shouldn't have jumped the gun," Izuku apologized. He hadn't exactly been thinking straight when they realized the potential threat the pack posed, and he wanted to deal with them as quickly as possible.

"It's not like I exactly helped with the situation. I think I might've pulled a couple more of them with all the screaming," Yang admitted. Their battle had been rather earsplitting, but her fighting style was simply a lot louder than his by design, despite the fact that they both used a form of buckshot.

"That uppercut was pretty impressive, though. I think you flew at least fifteen feet and blew that Beowolf's skull to bits! Although I think keeping the name is going to raise a few eyebrows. And you could definitely work on the landing," Izuku mentioned.

Yang gave a bashful smile. "Well, I always wanted to say it at least once. And like you're one to talk about landings, Mr. No-Tuck and Roll."

"Touche," Izuku responded. The two of them then had a chuckle at their respective screwups. It felt good to look back on that kind of thing every once in a while, and maybe have a laugh or two at your own expense. Even though this did take place yesterday, it was still kinda funny in retrospect.

"... let's never do something that stupid ever again," Yang said.

"At this point, we can only try," Izuku pointed out, knowing that it would only be a matter of time before they got into something equally dangerous. They'd be more prepared next time, though.

"Touche."

After a few more seconds of awkward silence, Izuku quickly realized just how close he was in proximity to Yang. Worried about how much weirder this would make things between them, he started to back away, only for Yang to grasp at his hand as it left the bedside. It was gentle, but also firm. She gave enough leave for him to get out of it if he wanted to, but tight enough to give her some reassurance.

Izuku gently squeezed back and helped Yang out of the bed, the covers falling away to reveal that she was still wearing some of the same clothes she had previously, only missing her signature jacket and boots, leaving her with plain bandages and her crop top to keep her modesty intact. He was in a similar boat, having only his slacks to his person, his cloak, vest, bits and pieces of armor, boots, and shirt currently nowhere to be seen. They'd have to ask after their clothes once they got through answering Beth and Shino's questions.

But, as Izuku was going through that train of thought, Yang had chosen that moment to pull him into a full-on hug, wrapping her arms around his shoulders and leaving no space between them. The warmth she seemed to generate was something to behold, soothing the sore spots still present under his bandages by sheer proximity. Izuku slowly let himself relax into it and gently put his own hands around her hips, and causing his already rapid heartbeat to ever so slightly spike.

"Thanks... for talking to me," she whispered in his ear, tightening her hug slightly in accompaniment of the scarcely heard shake in her voice. "It's good to... feel like some stuff is still normal."

That was when Izuku realized Yang had almost had a panic attack. Waking up alone, not knowing where she was despite the peaceful atmosphere... he would've been similarly off-put if he hadn't been so determined to make sure she was alright. It was one of the reasons no one in the group liked to leave her alone for too long.

Was she having thoughts similar to his about this kind of intimate physical contact? Maybe. But right now, she needed to feel like something was still normal. Even when their breaths were hitched and shaky, and their heartbeats were going so fast they were practically in synch.

Izuku didn't know how long it took for them to disentangle themselves from that embrace. It felt like hours, and each move away from it felt... wrong, somehow. But they had to focus. They could deal with their confused feelings later. Right now, they had some questions to answer. Hopefully, they wouldn't be too specific.

Slowly, Izuku led Yang from the room she'd been kept in, his hand in hers as their footsteps quietly echoed against the smooth wooden floor. Beth and Shino, noticing Yang's uncharacteristically timid nature, let them take their time getting downstairs, briefly disappearing to hand the both of them plain white t-shirts to further protect their modesty. Luckily, it didn't take very long for them to throw the shirts on, though they did help each other out a bit due to the stiffness their bandages left them with.

It didn't exactly help that Izuku could swear Beth had a teasing gleam in her eye for no longer than a moment before reverting back to her default stone-faced expression.

The hazel-eyed boy from earlier was sitting at a mid-sized table downstairs, with a boy with dark hair and a brass horned red hat sitting across from him, the former anxiously tapping his foot against the floor while the latter glared daggers into the wood in front of him.

When they approached, the hazel-eyed boy straightened his back, keeping his eyes on them the entire time. The other boy gave a passing glare, like they were something he considered unwelcome, but made no move to otherwise acknowledge their presence.

Shino and Beth took the two spots directly across from where Izuku and Yang chose to sit, with the hazel-eyed boy directly to the green haired inheritor's right.

"So... let's start with the obvious. Why are you here, specifically?" Beth said, leading to a long few minutes of question after question after question. The two hadn't let their fingers separate, even once they'd sat down, but Izuku knew that probably meant the world to Yang once they'd started talking. He was nervous too, especially since they couldn't exactly give them clear answers to some of the questions without telling them... well, basically everything, and putting them in even more danger than they were already in.

They did, however, tell them everything they could about the bare basics and left out as many of the finer details as they could. They about their travels through Anima as hunters in training to the city of Mistral, and told a minorly modified story of the attack that happened in Oniyuri, that they'd been on the run from one the assailants but hadn't seen him in days, and how they'd inadvertently underestimated a Beowolf pack because they hadn't seen its full size. And that was where their story caught up to the part at the farmhouse. It was relatively short, but it had to be. Any more details would've given the chance for further questions.

"... well, that at least clears a few things up. You're free to stay here as long as you need to recover, but we're going to have to keep vigilant for this person that's after you. It'd probably be ideal for you to leave as soon as you're fully recovered," Beth said with an almost uncanny understanding of their situation despite lacking most of the details.

"That's actually what we were thinking too. Thanks for having us," Izuku said.

"We'll do what we can to help out while we're here," Yang offered.

"We'll let you know if anything like that comes up. In the meantime, I suppose it's about time we introduced you to our nephews," Shino said as she stood and walked to the head of the table. "The tense one to your right is Oscar. The younger one is Kota. I hope you'll get along with them."

The now named Oscar gave his aunt a brief glare, seemingly embarrassed by his descriptor. Izuku took pity on him and held out his hand, saying, "It's nice to meet you. I'm Izuku Midoriya."

That was when the boy looked down at Izuku's and, then up to his face, then down to his hand again as he finally realized what was happening and shakily grabbed it and shook. "I-I-it's nice to m-meet you!"

Izuku felt a pang of DeJa'Vu as he realized Oscar's fear. It was similar to his own when he first met All Might and most of his friends. Wait... did he... no way, that couldn't be possible. He hadn't even made his debut yet.

"I'm Yang. Ditto to what greenie said," the blonde brawler introduced herself in kind, holding up a peace sign with her left hand and a cheeky grin across her face. She briefly squeezed Izuku's finger lightly before letting go of the handhold.

"Kota? C'mon. At least introduce yourself to them," Beth said with a hand on the boy's shoulder, though it looked as though he were having none of it. Still, Izuku tried his best to not be one who judged by appearances, and rose from his place to greet the now named Kota.

"Hey there. I'm Izuku Midoriya. I'm a hunter in-"

And suddenly, in a flash so quick that not even he could predict it, Kota's hand formed a fist and buried itself just below his navel in a blinding jab of a punch. It hadn't been as low or as damaging as it could've been, but Oum damn did it hurt.

He stumbled back as Yang rushed from her chair to his side, easing him into a sitting position on the floor before turning back to Kota, a hint of red beginning to overtake the normal shade of lilac. "What the hell is wrong with you?! He's already injured, and all he did was try to introduce himself!"

"Hmph. Hunter? Don't make me puke," they heard him retort with a coldness that a child should never possess. "You're just-"

"Kota. Room," Beth said with an eerie calm in her tone with an edge iced just enough for him to have no real choice but obey, loudly stomping up the stairs with the short woman at his heels, slamming the door to his room behind him as Beth waited at the entrance.

"I'm sorry about Kota. He's... complicated," Shino said as she came to Izuku's side, helping Yang raise him from the ground and put him back on his feet.

"... yeah, I noticed," Yang said, the statement void of any sarcastic tone it would've otherwise held.

After Izuku could stand on his own, Shino stepped back and said, "Please don't hold it against him. He... he hasn't liked hunters of any kind for a really long time. He doesn't even like me and Beth very much. I think the only reason he bothers staying around is that he has nowhere else to go."

That was unusual. Izuku couldn't think of a single kid from his entire childhood that _didn't_ want to be a hunter someday. Sure, there were those who eventually lost interest, or, rarely, scoffed at the very notion; but someone Kota's age? In his experience, Kota would've been like him and Bakugo, eating up everything about hunters they possibly could. Clothing, weapons, fighting styles, semblances. There was literally nothing more enticing during that time in their lives.

Even though his curiosity and worry about this boy burned with the intensity of a massive inferno, he held his tongue. It wasn't his place to pry. If someone wanted to tell them, then they'd tell them.

"I-I'll... uh, check on the roots," Oscar said, excusing himself from the table and the awkward situation it had brought not a minute earlier.

That was when Beth came back downstairs, a sigh heavy on her lips as she smoothed over her fiery red hair. "He's not coming out of there for a while. Best to just... leave him to his devices, for now."

And that was where the conversation surrounding their stay ended, an ominous note in the air.

 _(meanwhile, the Belladonna household, Sun's POV)_

Sun's eyes fluttered open involuntarily the first time, having had just enough rest to let the light peek through his eyelids. He was about to close them once more and return to the hold of slumber, but a sharp pain in his shoulder suddenly sent endorphins rushing towards his head.

Clutching at the wound in an attempt to dull the pain, Sun tried to lift himself up from wherever he was laying, barely raising his back two inches from the mattress only for a firm hand to grasp his shoulder and push him back down. "Easy there, gunchucks. Don't hurt yourself right after you woke up. Besides, you've got some questions to answer."

That voice could only have belonged to Bakugo, though the tone he used was softer than he was usually used to hearing from the boy. Sun then noticed that Neo was currently peaking over the ashen blonde direwolf's shoulder to look at him with a curious but still concerned gleam in her eye. The fact that her eyes seemed to change color every time she blinked didn't help with the growing headache.

"Keep him here, okay Minty? I'll get Ghira and the medics," Bakugo said as he walked towards the entrance to the room, briefly stopping before turning back to say, "And wake up Blake too. She's gonna want to hear whatever his answer is."

The blonde monkey faunus was left temporarily confused as he tried to lift his other hand and respond, only to feel it being burdened by something atop it. That prompted him to actually turn to his left and see that Blake had fallen asleep on it. In most other situations, he would've woken her up and teased her about it, maybe make her blush in that adorable way that really brought out the amber of her eyes.

Now, when he looked at Blake, eyes peacefully closed, a stream of saliva lulling down the side of her cheek and onto the sheets; all he could focus on were the deep but fading bags beneath her eyes. How badly had she been worried? Had his injuries really been that bad?

 _Damnit. Stupid, impulsive hypocrite,_ he told himself. He was supposed to be helping her get over her troubles, and here he was, making her worry about him instead.

By the time Sun had finally worked up the nerve to wake her up, Blake had already begun to rouse on her own accord. Slowly, she lifted her head from its former place on the bed and rubbed the sleep out of her eyes, then stretching her arms over her head and giving a long yawn to further relate her to her faunus counterpart. It was honestly kinda adorable.

Then, lazily, with eyes half opened and sleep still hanging about her head, Blake glanced around the room, only half paying attention until she finally saw him. There was a brief spark of recognition at first, followed by a hand further wiping away what sleep remained in her eyes and allowing them to fully open and see to what lay before her: Sun, injured and recovering in bed. But alive and well all the same.

Rather suddenly, tears began to line her eyes as she reached forward and grabbed him by the chest, pulling him close to her as she could in a firm but still moderately comfortable embrace. This was also when he noticed that Neo happened to slink back to the further reaches of the room and let them have some modicum of privacy. Even if that wasn't exactly at the top of Sun's priorities at the moment.

"Thank you. Thank you for waking up," Blake said buried her face further into his uninjured shoulder.

"What's there to thank me for about that? All I did was have a good rest, right?" Sun said, trying his best to recapture some of the humor and optimism he was known for, and actively failing in that regard.

If Blake noticed this, she made no mention of it. It didn't stop her from continuing. "You... damnit, Sun, that wasn't just a rest! Your internals were so screwed up you were having constant seizures before we got any medical people over here, and your heart kept stopping and starting and stopping again and... I didn't know if you were going to live through it or not, and I... damnit, I can't..."

That was all she could manage to say before she broke down in tears once again. Sun mentally slapped himself twice over, once for making light of the implications of his own death to someone who was deathly worried about him, and the other for being so reckless with his own life and temperament in the first place.

Slowly, with all the patience and caution of one handling a bear, Sun put his good arm around her, returning her hug in kind as he tried the best he could to reassure her despite his own doubts weighing heavily on his mind. "I'm sorry. I know I'm not the easiest person to deal with, friend or otherwise. So, I won't say 'don't worry about me,' because I know you won't listen to that. Not after... everything that's happened. I should've told you guys when you first started getting concerned. Would've made this a lot simpler. But... here we are anyway. Sorry."

A whimper escaped Blake's lips as her tears wet his shoulder. They stayed for what felt like an eternity. There was no passion, no anger, only a mutual moment of understanding and regret between two souls who desperately needed to become fully stable. Perhaps this could help to reach that end in some way, shape, or form yet unknown to the two. Time would only tell.

It didn't take long afterward for the medical staff to enter the room along with Ghira and Bakugo, giving him all the basic tests to make sure that he was indeed okay.

"He'll have to recover for the next few days, but otherwise he'll be back to normal in no time. Make sure you don't strain yourself during that timeframe, alright young man? That means no training, no running, no lifting. Just rest and recover for now," the medic said with all the sternness of one with an abundance of experience dealing with his type: one who thought they could work through the pain and get even stronger because of it.

Of course, Sun had more than realized by this point that not listening to advice from a majority of medical professionals would be incredibly stupid, and simply gave a firm nod.

And so, with eyes on him from every which way, he breathed a sigh. He'd honestly hoped he wouldn't have to tell the story... at all, really. Hope being the key term. And so, the story began, and all the unpleasant memories it held came with it.

"It started the moment I got back down to Vale. There was fire everywhere, to the point that the smoke began to blot out the night sky..."

 _(five months ago, Vale under siege, Sun's POV)_ **(GORE AND VIOLENCE TOWARDS THE END. FINAL WARNING)**

He hadn't expected everything to be as bad off as it was. Yeah, he knew there'd be damage, maybe some injuries ranging from minor to major, but he knew that they could handle this. All Might, the Black Reaper, and Endeavor were all here, in the same place, after all. The biggest gathering of Big Four members in years would surely be enough to keep everyone safe.

How naive that hope had been.

Instead, the first thing he was greeted by was the heat, both literal in temperature and metaphorical in battle. Gunfire could be heard in both the distance and nearby, and screams of both fright and pain filled the air. Orders bellied and reactions came and went. And this was supposed to be the end of the battle.

Yet still, despite his own fear and trepidation at this, Sun still kept moving forward, through flame and rubble, through Grimm and gunfire. He wouldn't stop until he'd found all of them. Scarlet, Sage, and Neptune. He _couldn't_ stop.

As fast as his legs would let him, he wound his way through the city, calling out their names whenever he could. The blonde monkey faunus had no idea how long he'd been searching for, but it still felt far too long. He should've found them by now. What happened? Were they okay?

Still, he pushed on, making his way into a damaged building that had faint embers licking at the woodwork. Oum, he hoped the building wouldn't catch fire. The first floor was bare and empty, save a few dissolving Beowolf corpses alongside on of an Ursa, and the bodies of a few of the several dozen AK units he'd seen backing up security during the festival and attacking students outright shortly after the fighting had started.

And the blood. Dear Oum, there was so much blood. It had been splattered onto the walls like paint from a bucket, covering some part of every surface in the room. The corpses of the Atlas military personnel didn't bode well for whoever was upstairs.

Forcing down his growing sense of nausea, Sun raced up the flight of stairs, his shoes audibly stepping into wet spots and even a puddle of what he knew to be blood. Still, on he went, prepared to help any survivors who'd managed to make it upstairs.

He wasn't prepared for what he found.

A last stand had been fought up here. Brutal, long, and bloody was the tale that the room told, with Grimm fading left and right, and even a few bodies of White Fang Elites were littered about here and there. This had been about survival. Not honor, not glory; survival, at any cost.

And it had been for naught. In the middle of the room, impaled on his own sword, was Sage, his once glowing, golden eyes glazed over and as dead as he was, blood sticking to his dark skin, matting his hair, and staining his coat as he shielded another body. He couldn't tell if his sacrifice had been worth it. Nor did he care. His friend was...

 _Why... why do I feel so hollow?_ Sun asked himself as he walked towards his fallen friend. _Why am I not... why can't I..._

Sage was supposed to be their strongest. The bloodbath that led here more than proved that. But it shouldn't have cost him his life. Not with the sheer density of his aura.

Then, he heard a cough not ten feet away from where Sage laid. Struggling to their feet was a manic looking Fang elite, their mask cracked and ready to fall to the floor and shatter into shards, the only expression Sun was canny to being the satisfied smile that graced a mouth of twin rows filled with serrated teeth. But the only thing that Sun felt when he saw that look was nothing but pure, unfiltered rage.

Suddenly, he was across the room with his fist buried in the elite's face, sending them into the wall they'd been leaning against. "WHY?!" he heard himself scream, grabbing the elite by the neck and hoisting them up by a single hand with strength he didn't know he had. "WHY?!"

A cough escaped the elite's lips before and explanation did. "Why?" asked a baritone but distinctly feminine voice. "You should know why, dear brother-"

A gut punch silenced her, causing a fit of coughing as Sun's glare somehow hardened even further. "You're no sibling of mine! Now answer the damn question!"

"... because, this is our first step. To getting what we want. If humans will not respect us, then they shall learn to fear us! As they should! Why do you think the faunus were given these abilities that humans were not? Keen senses, innate weapons, the silence of a shadow and so much more! Do you not see? We were never made inferior! We were better than them all along! And it is time they learned their place-"

Another punch to the gut. "I said... Answer. The damn. Question."

"What... *hack* … what does it matter? The reason should not matter to those of greater birth, _brother._ Why would we bother remembering? They're all scum anyway."

…

 **GRIP!**

With a firm, torturously painful grip on the elite's face, Sun slowly lifted her even higher, tightening his grip ever so slightly as he suddenly, and swiftly, smashed her head into the wall, causing blood to start trickling from her head. Then again. Harder. More blood. Anger, boiling in his stomach and clawing its way up his throat like a parasite. One that he welcomed.

" _HE!"_ **SLAM!** _"WAS NOT!"_ **SLAM!** _"SCUM!"_ **SLAM!**

" _MY FRIEND!"_ **SMASH!** _"WAS NOT!"_ **WOOSH!** _"SCUUUUUUUUUUM!"_

And with that final cry, he brought his hand down and slammed the elite into the floor, her head exploding into a bloody mess as it finally split open with a sickening, wet crack. Emotions welled and mixed inside his mind. Was he guilty? Disgusted? Or, worst of all, was he satisfied with what he had just done?

He didn't know the answer to that. All Sun did know was that his friend, his teammate, was dead. And he couldn't stop it.

But then, cutting through the haze and the confused feelings, he heard someone cough. It came from right next to where Sage lay dead, and then he knew, _he knew_ , that his death wasn't for nothing. He had to save this person, no matter who they were. He wasn't going to let his friend's death be in vain.

He hadn't realized until later that the one Sage had saved was Neptune, who was now in a months-long coma and showed no signs of waking up. And he could never find Scarlet in all the wreckage, even long after Sage's body had been recovered and sent back to Mistral. By all accounts, he felt that he was truly alone in the world.

 _(the Belladonna household, Blake's POV)_

Blake... had nothing to say. She'd suffered hardship, racism, violence, manipulation, betrayal... but dear Oum, what she just heard from Sun was something she wouldn't wish on anyone. Not even the worst of the worst.

Judging by the silence that the others held with sealed lips, clenched fists, and grit teeth, they felt similarly. Even Bakugo; the hardass, ever taunting, ever infuriating Bakugo, felt the need to put a hand on Sun's shoulder, a physical show of his support, before whispering "I'm sorry," under his breath before he turned and slowly left the room. Neo had no words to type or sign, and she too left the room shortly after the ashen blonde direwolf did. It seemed that Sun's story had brought about some unpleasant memories for them.

Her own father had sat down next to Sun; a boy that, until now, he had only tolerated because of her insistence, and simply waited, a silent understanding seeming to form between the two of them.

Blake's own feelings on the matter, however, seemed to range from wanting to burst into tears to giving Sun a death-hug. But her shock at what she'd just learned prevented her from doing either.

But something, she didn't know what, urged Blake to comfort him however she could. So slowly, with a tender but hesitant touch, she brought Sun's head to her shoulder, as he had done for her just minutes before. He had a sudden breath at that, as though he were surprised she would do so.

"I... there are no words in this world that can lessen the pain you've gone through. For that, and so, so much more, I'm sorry. I am so, so sorry," Blake said as she let her hug tighten a bit. "We're here for you. All of us. Even when it feels like you're the only person in the world. So please... please stay with us."

A few seconds of deafening silence. A slight shake from Sun's body, followed by a wet sensation on her shoulder. He was crying. Had she any more tears to spare from her eyes, she'd give them, despite the fact they were red, puffy, and dry.

"O-okay," he said, his voice holding the same shake as his body. "B-but... t-that goes for you too."

"... you got it," Blake said as her chin rested top Sun's shoulder, her eyes deciding to grant her wish as a single tear ran down the corner of her eye. She wasn't going to let her friend suffer in silence anymore. She wouldn't let him make the same mistake.

 **A/N: And that's all we got for this chapter! I hope you guys enjoyed it! I had one heck of a time writing it, especially the flashback scene. Yes, I am indeed a sick and demented soul. I am a DM, after all. And now:**

 **Review Responses:**

 **Uruk-Hai: Very true on both accounts! I hope this was satisfying! And I will say that reasoning does make sense for Smaug. There's a reason dragons don't exactly band together a whole lot.**

 **Odin's Eye: Glad you enjoyed Whitely! I may have had a bit too much fun writing Sun's flashback scene. I'm not entirely sure why outside of the possibility of my DM persona.**

 **KongKing94: Yes, indeed it was. The White Fang are now an active presence in Menagerie and no longer just a rumor, so I'm hoping that'll shake things up a bit. But I hope you enjoyed this chapter regardless of the lack of fight scenes.**

 **Gojifreak: Indeed.**

 **Black Fang: Well, less pissed and more silently understanding, a far cry from who he was at the beginning.**

 **Madmagusmax: During his next fight scene.**

 **DD Lore Nerd: I hope it will be too, especially after that... more than tense and awkward introduction to Kota.**

 **Thunder Dragon: Of course I don't hate him! (he says after he just finished writing one of the most brutal scenes in the entire story thus far) I just thought a shift in motivation could really help his presence in Menagerie. Doesn't mean it's gonna be pretty, though.**

 **Guest: Thank you!**

 **HumbleBee 1: Yeah, that was one of my favorites to write out. Bakugo really doesn't give a flying f*ck at the start of the story.**

 **HumbleBee 2: That was just something I liked to write down every now and again. I've always imagined Iida as left-handed for some odd reason. I'm actually a righty myself.**

 **Leviathan's Heir: Well... they didn't go** _ **that**_ **far. Heck, they didn't even kiss. There was a lot of emotional and sexual tension though, I can say that much.**

 **Phoenix Wizard: Erm... I guess this chapter answered your question. I hope you enjoyed the flashback, however brutal it was!**

 **King Ceasar Jr: They'll all get together by the end of the Mistral arc. If you're referring to Izuku and Ruby's groups specifically, they'll reunite towards the start of the arc.**

 **Mecha Manda: Indeed! I always thought Whitley could make for a good anti-hero, so I did my best with him!**

 **Kaiser Dragon: Hmm... take a bit of a raincheck on that one. Or... actually, just wait a bit longer! I haveth an idea most holy!**

 **Alright! That's that dealt with. And now, this:**

 **Next Chapter: Jul. 26** **th**

 **Huh. That's pretty close to my birthday. Oh well! Seeya in the next one!**


	55. Malt

**A/N: Fire Emblem: Three Houses comes out today. Huh. It feels kinda surreal. Never thought I'd actually see Fire Emblem make a comeback to consoles. Well, I'm excited nonetheless! Anyways, I hope you all enjoy the chapter guys!**

 **Disclaimer: I do not own RWBY or My Hero Academia. They belong to Monty Oum, Kohei Horikoshi, and their respective publishing companies. Please support the official releases.**

 **I do not own the cover image**

Chapter 55: Malt

Yang had always been more than willing to help Shino and Beth while they stayed. It was the least they could do for them after all. However, that didn't mean she wasn't nervous about going into town. Shino had reassured her that most people in the town likely hadn't seen the broadcast of the Vytal Festival since scroll signals were usually just that bad out in the sticks, but the blonde brawler worried all the same.

But, when they actually got to town, the people actually paid them very little mind, despite the fact that she and Izuku were back in their hunter outfits. Granted, they also still had most of their bandages on, but she had expected a more... hostile welcome from the rest of the townspeople. Instead, they were simply treated with common courtesy.

It wasn't much, but it was so much better than a few of the other places they'd been to.

"Alright. This is where we get most of our meat," Shino said as she pointed to the butcher's shop, hidden in a secluded corner towards the middle of town. It was a small place, with square framed windows and a single oak door, with a wood sign hung above with a slab of red steak emblazoned for all to see. Despite the fact that she'd never seen the place before, Yang couldn't help but feel just a bit nostalgic.

The three of them entered and were immediately greeted with the smell of meat and an overwhelming change in temperature, suddenly going from pleasantly warm to offputtingly cold. It wasn't too much of a surprise though, since this was to be expected of a place that had meat long-term. At the counter was a large man with thick, muscled, hair-covered arms, a bald head, and a short but thick as hell black beard. The man wore a white apron stained with blood over a simple green shirt and dark blue pants, only serving to make him appear even more intimidating than he already was naturally.

"Hey there, Owen! How's the stock?" Shino said with her usual peppy charm, holding her good hand out in greeting as she approached.

Owen turned to the woman and, surprising both Yang and Izuku, suddenly had a huge grin spread across his face as he shook Shino's hand and gave a boisterous response, "Nearly filled! Yui's getting another buck to finish it up, so we should be good for the next month or two."

"Awesome! I was actually wondering if I could get this in addition to the usual?" Shino asked as she handed him one of the lists she'd been carrying.

"Certainly! But it will cost fifty Lien more," Owen said.

"You know we're good for it," Shino responded.

"You always are," the lumbering man said. Then, he saw her and Izuku towards the entrance of the shop and trying their best to look inconspicuous. "They with you?"

"Yeah. They're staying with us for a couple of days, and then they're headed off to Mistral," Shino explained.

"Ah!" Owen said as he left the counter and went to greet them. Another to note about the man in front of them was that he was tall, to the point that the crown of his head nearly touched the ceiling. "Hello there! I hope you'll enjoy your time in Malt. Might I ask your names?"

Izuku, despite his nervousness, introduced himself first, and Yang did the same just after him, though with a bit more enthusiasm than nervousness.

"Good names! Could I maybe interest you two in some sausages or steaks?" Owen offered.

"I think we'll be good on meat," Yang said, looking to Shino for confirmation.

"Yeah, the extra meat's for them. Sorry to rob you of a potential customer."

"No worries! So long as they're well-fed, I'm happy! Especially if my meat happens to help the matter!" Owen again said with a boisterous and easygoing nature that belied his appearance.

"I wasn't expecting this. I mean, he looks really intimidating, but he's just really... friendly. It's weird," Yang whispered to Izuku.

"... I guess this goes to show there's only so much people can learn from appearances," Izuku said.

"Yeah. I can still remember a time when people thought I was an airheaded bimbo. I mean, I'm not the smartest person in the world, or among our friends, but I'm certainly not stupid," Yang replied.

"I don't think I want to learn what happened to the last person who called you that," Izuku said.

"Well... they were already being kinda scummy, so..." Yang said as she remembered laying into the bitch who'd insulted her, Ruby, and their dad to the point that she couldn't hold back anymore and knocked a few of her teeth free.

It had been quite a day after that, resulting in the only suspension she'd ever had, and one of the few times her dad seemed disappointed. Understanding, yes, but disappointed too. It wasn't like she hadn't gotten into fights before that point, most of them had simply been off-campus, but she learned to not rise as easily to people's insults afterward. So long as they were directed at her. If anyone insulted her family or her friends within her hearing, there would be hell to pay.

"Hey! I'm back," a woman's voice said as it echoed through the back of the shop. "I should be able to skin this thing pretty quickly, so let's get the buckets ready and-"

Her trail of thought stopped when she came to the entrance and saw the three guests. If Owen was nearly as tall as the ceiling, the woman who just entered barely stood above the display, being only a bit taller than Beth was. Her hair was black and hung in a short tail behind her head, and blue eyes studied them carefully behind a pair of rectangular glasses. On her back was a bow and a quiver of arrows, accompanied by a hunter's jacket and camo pants.

She looked like a proper hunter. Not of Grimm, but of game. Besides, it did usually take a special kind of person to go out and hunt for meat when there were literal monsters around and you weren't able to fight them off. It could be surprisingly easy to avoid them if you could stay positive. Something that didn't really come as easy to her these days, unfortunately.

"Those two yours, Shino?" the woman who they assumed was Yui asked their current caretaker.

"I suppose they are, at least technically. They'll be in town for the next few days," she answered.

"Ah. Anyway, you guys recovering alright?" Yui asked the pair. "You look like you took a few bad hits."

"It's nothing that can't get better," Izuku answered, Yang giving a coy thumbs-up that actually made the woman smirk.

"Well, I've kept you long enough. Take care!" Yui said to them as she waved over her shoulder, disappearing into the depths of the back as the sound of a knife being sharpened echoed through the shop.

It wasn't long afterward that Owen emerged with Shino's order. "Here it is. Give Beth my regards, would you?"

"Got it. Seeya around," Shino said as they exited the shop.

That was one errand of the few that they had to take care of in town. There was the matter of the vegetables they didn't grow on their farm: lettuce, broccoli, etc., a few seasonings that seemed a bit too expensive but were actually pretty fair priced considering... well, everything; and a couple of bouquets of flowers of varying colors.

That got Yang's attention. The meat and other foodstuffs made sense, but there were only two occasions that really came to mind when it came to flowers. Well, three, but you didn't usually buy flowers wrapped like _that_ and just put them in a vase if you weren't a receiver.

"So... who're the flowers for?" Yang asked, a few of the bags dangling from her hands. A few feet away, Izuku was observing the town for himself, watching children pass them as they played their games and some of the townsfolk just... talking. He'd been pretty quiet for most of the trip, contenting himself with observing the goings-on of Malt.

Shino quickly answered, "They're for a few old friends of mine. Well, two of them are, at least."

"And the third?" the blonde brawler asked.

"... is for Beth," Shino said with a brief flush of pink dusting her scarred cheeks.

"Oh. So, you two are a thing?" Yang asked, genuinely curious now. She'd seen the glances that those two often gave to each other when they thought the other wasn't looking, but hadn't brought it up since it wasn't really her place.

"... yes... no... maybe... urgh, it's way more complicated than I want it to be," Shino admitted with a groan. If her good arm wasn't currently busy carrying the three bouquets, it probably would've been busied by rubbing her forehead.

"Is it though?" she asked.

"I'm not really sure. We've never really had a chance to talk about it all that much. I know I want it, but... I don't know what she thinks about this," Shino said. "I guess this is some stupid gesture that might finally help us get to the point of... discussing the possibility. Hopefully."

After a moment of hesitation, Yang put her hand on the older woman's shoulder, reassuring her as best she could. "Well, I hope things work out between you guys."

"Thanks. Guess you have some experience with this kind of stuff, huh?"

"... what?"

"You know. You and Izuku? Aren't you two..." Shino said, deliberately not finishing her question and letting the blonde brawler finish it herself.

Her face briefly turned bright red as she tried and failed to give an explanation, only giving out a quickly sputtered, "No! I mean... no, we aren't... 'together' together, but... It's-"

"-more complicated than you want it to be?"

"...touché," Yang replied.

After quickly checking over her shoulder to make sure Izuku was still distracted, the blonde brawler pulled Shino a bit closer and started to spill... well, a lot of things. "There... there were some points where we came really, really close to actually talking about it and where we could go from there, and even a few points where I just wanted to hug him really tight and tell him that he's really cute without having to be subtle or just grab his face and kiss him for as long as I could and dear Oum why does it feel so relieving to finally talk to someone about this?"

"Because sometimes stuff's easier when you're not the only one with the weight on your shoulders," Shino explained. "It was for me when I talked to Yui. It was kinda like I finally had someone to talk to about this kind of stuff."

"... that sounds nice," Yang said. Now she felt kinda like an idiot for keeping this bottled up. Maybe she could've told someone about this, so she wouldn't have felt so burdened? Maybe Weiss or Blake? Definitely not Ruby; her little sister couldn't keep a secret to save her own life. Especially not from Izuku. The two were pretty close friends back at Beacon.

 _Of course, the other two haven't exactly been around for the last few months, but it still would've helped._

Shino gave her a warm smile and said, "Well, whatever's next for you, I wish you luck with your guy."

"Same to you with the redhead," Yang replied, a cheeky grin spread across her lips.

"Erm... hey, Shino?" she finally heard Izuku ask. Shino was a bit startled, not used to Izuku's bouts of observant silence, but she did turn to face him. "Who's that guy?"

The man he was referring to sat at the edge of a bar without a drink, leaning back in his chair with a wide-brimmed hat atop his head. Otherwise, he wore a dark blue military jacket and cargo pants, with a black, neck-length beard flecked with grey stripes. Yang couldn't see his eyes, but she somehow knew that they were somehow tearing into her, scanning her for every weakness she might have. If they were in combat, the man would've acted upon those in seconds.

And the guy had hardly moved. And he was _just that terrifying_.

That was when Shino saved both her and Izuku from dying of fright by quickly flashing a smile and saying, "Oh, that's just Sharpe. He's an old vet from the Great War, but he's still one tough bastard. Had a few spars with him, actually."

"He's that good?" Izuku asked, the gears visibly turning in his head as he waited for his question to be answered.

"Better. You'd think I'd have to go easy on him, but it was actually the other way around. He's honestly that good with a rifle, and even better with a cavalry saber. Scarily good..." Shino recalled with a shudder. "I wouldn't take him up on a spar anytime soon. Especially while my arm's broken."

"Wait... Sharpe... Sharpe... I could've sworn that I've heard that name before..." the green-haired inheritor muttered to himself.

Actually, Yang thought the name was kinda familiar too. But the only real time she could think of was one time during history class when Oobleck was going full speed and went through several battles in meticulous detail... within an hour. That had been a hectic day, to say the least.

Wait...

"... is he... _that_ Sharpe? _Richard_ Sharpe?!" Yang asked in realization.

"Yeah. He's never made a big fuss of 'protecting his identity,' but he does prefer the quiet life to a hectic one. I wouldn't bring up his history around him. Just treat him as another person from Malt, and you'll get on fine," Shino said. "C'mon. We should be getting back now."

That was not the explanation that either Yang or Izuku had been expecting. There was a _legendary soldier in their town_ , the one who'd almost singlehandedly turned the tide of the Great War on Mistral's turf to Vale's favor, participated in so many legendary battles it would take a day to name them all, and even came up with so many advanced and out of the box tactics that some were still adapted used by various militaries to this day. And he was just... sitting around? In the middle of Mistral?

That was... a tough pill to swallow, but Yang could understand why he'd want to at least enjoy some quiet. The military weren't looked upon as highly now that hunters were the norm to protect people from Grimm. Hunters used to be few and banded together to survive, but now, following the end of the very war soldiers like Sharpe had fought tooth and nail to win, they had taken over the popular consciousness.

But that was neither here nor there. Hopefully, she and Izuku would be able to speak with Sharpe at least once before they left Malt and headed for Mistral-

And then something caught her eye. Yang hadn't been paying as much attention to her surroundings when they'd first entered town, but now she clearly saw a couple of bikes on display, one red, one green, and one yellow.

It was that last one specifically that caught her attention, because it had a very similar build to her old Bumblebee bike. The design was similar but refined in a way that she'd only dreamed of perfecting herself. All her mechanic senses were going off. Holy crap, she already loved this bike. How did it run? What was the fuel rate? How smoothly could she go at certain speeds?

So many other questions like that just popped into her brain as she felt herself just seconds away from actually drooling over the bike in front of her. However, she did manage to stop herself as she remembered the fact that they didn't have nearly enough Lien to either purchase or maintain something like a motorcycle, no matter how badly she wanted it.

With a resigned sigh, she turned and continued after Shino to the homestead, with Izuku waiting to greet her as they continued down the old, worn dirt path together, an unspoken tension between them.

 _(a few hours later, the Pine farmstead, Oscar's POV)_

Dinner seemed to be fairly normal, for once. After the first two nights of awkward silence, Izuku and Yang had actually started talking about a few things. It was mostly simple stuff, like how everyone's day was and how their days went, swapping stories of that sort.

Tonight, though, Yang was going on and on about this bike she'd seen earlier, wondering about its possible specs and speed and a whole bunch of technical jargon that he couldn't hope to even begin understanding. Izuku just looked at her fondly as he slowly ate his own meal while Yang only stopped to eat hers in short bursts.

" _You should be eating as well, Oscar. You'll need it after all that exercise earlier this afternoon,"_ the elder voice rang through his head.

 _It's not exercise, Oz, it's training. I get plenty of exercise working on the farm,_ Oscar argued as he began on his own plate. Earlier in the afternoon, Oscar had felt the need to practice some form of fighting. It had been weighing on his mind ever since he'd nearly been mauled by that Grimm, and he really didn't feel like being in that kind of situation again without some way to defend himself. His aunts' policy on the matter had always been 'if you can see a way out, run like hell,' but that wasn't going to work forever. So, he'd decided to start practicing how to fight, properly this time.

That was where that particular afternoon happened. It was... rough, to say the least. It wasn't as though he couldn't hold his faux-sword correctly or he didn't know the most basic of basics; swish, swish, stab wasn't exactly all that complicated. It was more so the fact that he couldn't quite get his coordination right. No matter how many times he tried, he always felt as though he could've been better, faster, more agile, stuff like that. Half the time he didn't even know where those thoughts came from. The other half was usually Ozpin briefly critiquing and then encouraging him in equal measure, like a teacher often would a particularly troubled or struggling student.

"Oscar?" Beth suddenly asked.

"Hmm?" the hazel-eyed boy replied reflexively as he suddenly realized that he'd stopped eating his food and began staring at it as he'd gotten lost in his own thoughts. Son of a- how the heck did this keep happening?! He was a self-proclaimed daydreamer, but still!

"How was your day?" the red-haired woman asked again. Surprisingly, there wasn't even a hint of annoyance in her voice. Which was surprising to him, since Beth sincerely hated to repeat herself for any reason.

However, Oscar chose to ignore this for the moment and simply went on with the simple explanation of his day. Tending to the crops, reading, going through the forest, etc. While it did seem as though Beth was only humoring him, she didn't interrupt him, so he didn't stop until he was finished.

The night from there was also fairly standard. Kota, as per usual, finished first and went off to his room to be alone, leaving his dishes in the sink to be washed. He and Beth were on dish duty that night, so they did as they normally would and cleared the table of plates before washing them. Oscar was cleaning them, and Beth was drying them.

It always seemed as though Beth was just a few sentences away from catching on to what was going on with him. He'd tried not to act all that out of the ordinary, and he seemed to at least have Shino unaware as to the fact that he was currently sharing his mind with one of the most accomplished hunters and headmasters in all of Remnant sans All Might, but Beth had always been warier. Even cleaning dishes with her felt like a huge gamble.

Still, if the red-haired woman had anything to say to him, she didn't bring it up.

After they were finally done with all of the dishes, his fingers still wrinkly and somewhat damp from how long it had taken, Oscar announced to the quieting household, "I'm going for a bit of a walk."

"Be careful," Beth said, briefly cutting off her conversation with Shino. "And if you see any Grimm-"

"Run like hell for the homestead," Oscar finished with a smile on his face before closing the door behind him. He had a brief moment to wonder whether those two were finally going to get together, but he buried it among his other thoughts. Specifically, what this 'walk' would actually entail.

" _While I'd normally advise against training at night, this is an exception. I'd forgotten just how time-consuming farm work can actually be,"_ Ozpin said, giving his approval to this strategy of his.

 _I know. It's not that I don't enjoy it, but I'd rather feel like I'm making progress than just... monotonous busywork,_ the hazel-eyed boy agreed as they reached the same place he'd been practicing earlier. His faux sword was right where he'd left it, leaning against the back-end of a tree and ready to be swung. It was a crude thing, a simple old broom handle that was nearly the same length as a longsword. There were indents where wood had met tree trunk, and a few splinters on the furthest edge where the point would've been. It may have been crude, but it was all he had to practice with at the moment.

That and the thing was way heavier than it looked to be. It was even heavier than some of the hoes they had back in the barn! Even gripping it with both hands didn't reduce the effort it took to hold it steady. It was good practice in itself, though, and after about an hour and a half of practice earlier in the day, he was able to hold it steady without any noticeable shaking.

And so, Oscar began. A horizontal slash, diagonal slash, stab, and repeat. For the next few minutes, this was all he did, only taking the briefest of moments to take a breath and then go at it again full-force.

Once that was over and done with, Oscar decided that he was going to try that combo once again. It hadn't exactly gone well the last few times, but something about this time felt-

 **WHACK!**

 **CLATTER!**

… the exact same. The exact. Fucking. Same. He had dropped his faux sword not even two steps into the combo. Great! What a perfect start!

" _Again, you need to let your wrists be flexible but not weak. Swordplay isn't all about 'might makes right.' It's even moreso about dexterity and reaction,"_ Ozpin told him for what felt like the twentieth time. Hell, considering how many times he'd tried and failed that technique, it may well have been the twentieth time.

That still didn't stop his retort, however. _If you could demonstrate exactly what you mean by that, I would gladly follow an example._

" _If that were possible at this point in time, both of our lives would be much easier,"_ Ozpin admitted.

It was easier for him to follow an example than listening to someone talk about stuff. Oscar thought it was why he hated lectures in school so much. Beth used to say his mom hated them too, with a passion.

"Do you... need help with that?" a voice said from behind him.

Briefly caught unawares by this sudden presence, Oscar swung around with his faux sword in hand... only to see that Izuku was standing behind him, his weapon over his shoulder and a look of pleasant surprise on his face.

"Oh! Erm... hey... there..." Oscar managed to get out.

" _Is that seriously all you can say?"_ Ozpin asked in his resting sarcasm voice. It felt a little more deliberate at that moment, but that was beside the point.

 _I can't help it! He was my favorite competitor in the festival and now he's standing right in front of me! It's like meeting a celebrity!_ Oscar replied as he tried his best to keep his excitement in check. What should he say? Izuku was responsible enough to follow him out here, so would he tell his aunts? Could he ask for help with his swordplay? _Should_ he ask for help with his swordplay?

Then again, he did offer...

"Actually... if it wouldn't be too much trouble..." Oscar said with tentative hesitation. "I've been having some trouble with this one combo-"

"You're locking your wrists, so you can't make the proper movements. And you're afraid that you'll drop your weapon," Izuku predicted.

"That's... actually what I was struggling with," Oscar answered.

"It can be a bit before you wrap your head around the concept, but it's best to have a loose but still firm grip on your sword. The mid-point between too hard and too soft when it comes to longswords and such," Izuku said as he held out his hand for Oscar's faux sword. The boy handed it over quickly, watching the green-haired hunter test its balance with a single hand- just how strong was he? The test swings almost made him seem like Izuku was playing with a twig when he could barely keep it upright.

"I'm not sure I understand..." Oscar admitted. Seeing him use it in the manner he was had given him a few ideas about where he went wrong, but he still couldn't see the root of the problem.

"Well... for example: you should keep a firm grip on the handle," Izuku said as he walked up to the tree Oscar was just using as target practice, "And faster blows should come from your elbow, not your shoulder," he said as he prepared to strike.

Then, thought slowed, a blow faster than anything Oscar had yet made suddenly came from the opposite side and stopped only a hair's breadth away from the trunk of the tree. The air dispersed in a dull boom, kicking up a small gust that actually moved through his hair.

"Now you try," Izuku said, quickly easing out of the stance and handing back the faux sword. Despite his nervousness, Oscar did as he was asked, following Izuku's example and-

 **WHACK!**

Okay, he'd have to learn exactly how Izuku was able to stop his strike just before making contact with his target, but... wow, it was so much easier now!

"Awesome! You're a natural," Izuku congratulated with genuine happiness.

"Thanks!" Oscar said. "Erm... please don't tell my aunts?"

"Hm? Why... don't you want them to know? Aren't they hunters?" Izuku asked.

"I mean, they used to be. They didn't want me to get involved with all of this, but... well, I just didn't want to feel that helpless again," Oscar explained.

After a moment of silence, Izuku gave a simple nod. "I won't tell them. I doubt they'd bring something like this up anyway.

"But," he said firmly. "If they do happen to learn about this, you shouldn't try to deny it. Put your cards on the table and maybe you can come to a compromise. Alright?"

"Yeah, that sounds fair," Oscar agreed.

And so, with his faux-sword once more hidden, the two began to make their way back to the farmstead, Oscar's confidence firmer than ever before. Maybe, one day, he could actually help people with that skill set. But that was for another day.

 _(Izuku's POV)_

Izuku had to admit, he had no idea how he was going to strike up a conversation with this boy. Sure, he'd just give him advice on swordplay, but he'd basically just adjusted one of the lessons Shoto had given him when he was struggling with his grip. He still wasn't really a people person, despite the fact that he'd been taking steps to improve his social skills, but man it was hard to start a conversation with someone who was still somewhat a stranger.

 _Not to mention the fact that he might have two souls. Urgh. Okay, enough of that Izuku. Focus. What do you think he'd be interested in talking about?_

 _... well, he did have a pretty sizable interest in swordplay. And hunters... wait, now that I actually think about it, he's kinda like me. That's... wow, it feels so weird to see this from the outside. But hunter stuff isn't something you can really bring up in casual conversation. Well, I mean, I can't without going into a tangent- and I'm rambling._

 _Oh! I could try that!_

So, as Izuku prepared to speak, he asked the hazel-eyed boy, "I noticed your home has a lot of books to choose from. Got any recommendations?"

"... er... I mean, we've got a lot. I've got Daylight Hunters, The Chronicles of Red Cloak, A Ballad of Ember and Frost, a bunch of other fairy tales like The Girl in the Tower, the Maiden Chronicles, the Wanderer Series, some books on farming... there's... well, to be honest, there's way more than I'd be able to reasonably list without actually thinking," Oscar said. He did seem as though he was genuinely excited to be talking about something that was probably near and dear to him: reading.

"I was actually wondering if you had any volumes for... Duality? I think that's what the series was called," Izuku said, recalling one of the various series that Blake liked to keep up with, sans her... smut. A brief synopsis was that it was about someone who, due to a series of circumstances, possessed within him two souls. Eventually, the souls would either have to come to a point of reconciliation, or fight until one of them remained dominant over the body they shared. He just hoped that Oscar would read between the lines.

Oscar's hand went to his chin for a moment, and after a few moments, he said, "I think so. I've got most of them, and they're a pretty good read. Not one of my favorites, but entertaining nonetheless."

It didn't seem as though there was anything to read into with that reaction. He seemed intrigued by his choice in book series, but if he had any other reaction than mild interest, he didn't show it.

Eventually, they managed to get all the way back to the homestead, where Beth was waiting at the door, a patient but deadly gleam in her eye. She didn't scold or criticize Oscar, however, and simply gave him a stern 'go to bed.' The hazel-eyed boy quickly obliged and let his feet echo up the stairs, his redheaded aunt giving a slight smile.

"That boy will never stop being curious," Beth said.

"Yeah. But his wanderlust only grows with every year," Shino said, stepping to Beth's side and putting herself within rather intimate proximity to the shorter woman.

"... maybe we could take a trip to Mistral?" the redhead offered.

"And get dragged along for every Lien we have to be spent on hunter memorabilia? … I'll admit, it actually sounds kinda nice. I haven't even been to the city for so long. I have no idea what's changed!" Shino replied excitedly.

"It's like a whole new adventure," Beth said as she subtly leaned her head into Shino's arm. The taller woman, while a bit surprised at first, gradually leaned her cheek down to the top of Beth's head.

 _And now I'm intruding. Okay, just slowly back away... slowly... light steps, light steps..._

Luckily, none of the boards beneath his now bare toes gave way to his weight, so his movement was made without a creak to be heard. Once he managed past the entryway, he saw Yang leaning against the wall as she went through a few screens on her scroll.

She was probably trying to check the news and communications possibilities again. They'd tried the same thing before only a few days ago, but it proved to be fruitless once Beth told them about Malt's damaged com tower. It sucked, but as it was currently, they had no line of direct communication with either Mistral or their friends; at least for the moment.

"Hey you," she said as she turned her scroll off, briefly tucking it into her pocket.

"Hey you," Izuku replied. He felt his heart skip a beat at that. Was he doing this right?

"So... I'm not gonna sleep for a little while," Yang said as her back left the wall. "You wanna watch stars with me?"

"I'd be happy to. It sounds nice," Izuku said.

That was also when the two of them heard Beth ad Shino making their way upstairs and only heard a single door open. The implications of that were fairly clear to someone who was even as dense to romance as Izuku was, and he and the blonde brawler both gained a bit of a blush at it for the briefest of moments.

"Well... let's leave them to their... alone... time..." Yang awkwardly said as she led the way through the side door. They emerged into a patch of land filled with grass that sheened silver with half-full moonlight, with an oak wood picket fence a ways around to mark the place as part of the homestead.

"I never noticed that they had a thing for each other," Izuku said absentmindedly as they sat down on the porch, both of their bare feet dangling over the edge. The grass was barely far enough away to keep from tickling his toes.

"I had my suspicions, but I didn't know for sure until Shino talked about it earlier," Yang said.

"Is that what you guys were talking about? Back in town?" he asked.

"Erm... yeah," Yang said with a bit of hesitation. Izuku wasn't dumb, they'd obviously talked about something else as well. That didn't mean he knew what though. That and he'd been distracted by _Richard freaking Sharpe_ being in town and just... observing them. It was honestly a little unnerving.

"... I actually never learned what happened to Bumblebee," Izuku said, recalling both her long staring contest with the mechanic's shop window and her excited rambling about the bike she'd seen. It was honestly adorable.

"Not surprised. Didn't exactly come up a lot," Yang replied. "Wanna hear about it?"

"Sure!" Izuku said.

The next several minutes were filled with Yang's grandiose tale of the fate of her beloved motorcycle, Bumblebee, and how it had made a valiant sacrifice in the battle against Torchwick's mech under Vale's main highway. It allegedly blew the mech right onto its ass, allowing her to lay into it before he started firing rockets everywhere and she was forced to bail. When the fight was over, she tried her damnedest to save what little she could of the bike, but alas, it was good for nothing but scrap in the condition it was in.

Despite the ridiculousness of the actual story, Yang managed to make it surprisingly emotional, and Izuku shed a quiet tear for the bike. Rest in peace, Bumblebee. Your sacrifice shall not be forgotten.

After that, there was a bit of a lull and a silence between the two of them. A comfortable one that they'd been finding themselves in more and more often when they finally ran out of things to talk about. But, of course, silence often caused his mind to wander, in order to fill the void that would otherwise be left in its wake.

He didn't have to think long to think about what they had to talk about. The state of their relationship. The tension between them, both emotional and sexual, was getting to be damn near unbearable, and now that they'd been in such close proximity for so long...

"Yang," Izuku said after several silent moments.

"Yeah?" the blonde brawler asked, her own hands placed behind her.

"I... we need to talk about... about _this_ ," Izuku said as he shifted his weight to turn his full attention to her, gesturing from himself and then to her. The implication was clear. Yang quickly followed his example, shifting her seating in order to face him properly. This would probably be one of the most important conversations they'd have for the foreseeable future. It deserved nothing less than their utmost attention.

"... yeah," she quickly agreed, though hesitation was still present in both her gaze and her voice.

"Before... Yang, before I got to Beacon, I was a mess. I could barely talk to anyone, and I'm still struggling with that aspect of my personality. You... dear Oum, you helped me in more ways than I think I deserved. A lot of our friends helped too, but you were one of the ones who helped the most. I admired you. I admire a lot of people, but you always managed to grab my attention. The dumb jokes that always made me laugh, the spars we'd either win or draw, your mechanical tangents that were always so adorable to watch... and then... before I really knew what this feeling was, I... I think... I-"

But as Izuku tripped over the very words coming out of his mouth, struggling still to feel confident enough to say what he'd wanted to say for so long, he felt a gentle hand touch his cheek. Yang simply gave a small smile to him, the one that he'd really only seen when they were alone like this. She didn't say anything, and made no move to stop him from continuing. She just gave him the reassurance to keep moving forward.

"... I... think I fell in love with you. I'm honestly not sure when it happened, but now... I think I know for sure. I'm in love with you. And it's okay if you don't feel the same way. I'll be alright if that's the case. Besides, I still don't think I'm worthy of-"

And that was when, rather suddenly, she pulled him close and lightly pressed her lips to his. The sensation was nothing less the euphoric. Her lips were soft, almost velvety in texture, only reinforced by her slowly moving closer. Izuku had frozen from the shock of the fact that the girl he'd just admitted to loving was _kissing him._ Yang then moved even closer, her hand moving from his cheek to his shoulder to gain leverage and sending pleasant sensations through his entire body. He subconsciously wrapped his arms around her waist and back and let her straddle him, her own arms moving from his shoulders to wrapping themselves around his back.

He didn't know how long they stayed like that, but the involuntary movement of their hips against each other had caused the kiss to break. His eyes fluttered open to see Yang violet eyes staring back, and filled with care.

"Please... don't say you're not worthy. I care about _you_ Izuku. I... love you. Dear Oum, it feels so good to finally say that," Yang said as she pressed her forehead into his. "I love your messy hair that I can never fix. I love your tangents. I love that big ol' library of a brain you've got up there. I love those damn eyes I can lose myself in. But more than anything else... I love your kindness. Despite everything, you still have that same kind nature you did the first day we met. And I'll never stop loving it. I love you too, Izuku. I love you too."

And then, Izuku shed unironic tears of happiness. They were slow, and came at a trickle, but he didn't want them to stop. He whispered, not expecting to receive an answer, "What did I ever to do to deserve you?"

Yang chuckled lightly at that. "Easy. You tripped on your own two feet."

Izuku chuckled back. "Considering us, I guess that makes sense.

"... do you think... we moved a bit too fast back there?" he asked.

"... yeah. I'm sorry, you were being so honest and I got scared and I... didn't want to wait any longer," she explained.

"No, no. It's okay. I... actually liked it," Izuku admitted.

"... but?" Yang knowingly asked.

"But... we should take this... slow. Figure out how this'll really work when we reach Mistral. Maybe go on an actual date," he said.

"That sounds nice," Yang replied. "And... Izuku?"

"Mm?"

"I've processed... most of what you told me in the forest," she said. "And what I said before still stands. It doesn't change how I feel about you. I love you, Izuku Midoriya."

"I love you too, Yang Xiao Long," Izuku said, relishing how good it felt to say that. Yang was right about that.

"Can I kiss you again?" she asked.

"As many times as you want to," he replied.

And then, their lips reunited once more under the half-moon. It was softer, more sensual, yet just as passionate as their first. Not for the first time, he wished they could stay there for as long as they could. And they did.

 _(meanwhile, somewhere on the outskirts, Muscular's POV)_

Let it be known to all that care to listen that Muscular was not a patient man nor the planning type. He left that to the people with more brains than he while he smashed into everything he could. It was basically a hammer vs scalpel situation, and he was the former.

Unfortunately, however, he could not currently do what he was best at due to the insistence of his boss, Salem, who was currently contacting him via this very creepy-looking horror of a Seer Grimm. It was small, with a spherical body that was covered with bone-like plates, along with red tentacles that ended in white, bony spikes and a single eye. Still, he had no choice but to listen to the voice it carried. The woman had saved his life more than once, after all.

"I still don't get it. If I go down there now and get the drop on them while they're still wounded, I could end this right now," Muscular tried to reason. He wasn't wrong, and it would be a much easier battle than it would be otherwise.

" _ **And you'd walk right into a village that has managed to survive for fifty years under the duress of both bandits and Grimm attacks with minimal help from their country's capital,"**_ Salem answered back. _**"Wait for the... opportune moment to strike. So that you attack may have the maximum effect."**_

"But-"

" _ **Am I made clear, Muscular? Or do I have the need to repeat myself as I often hate to,"**_ she said, her tone as cold as Atlesian ice. If he was the hammer, and someone like that Watts fellow was the scalpel, then Salem was simply the one who could wield them both. It was terrifying to see in action.

"... transparent, 'mam," he replied, the only thing outdoing his lust for blood being his respect and fear of the woman speaking to him. He didn't know which feeling was heavier. But he would not disobey. He would wait. And when he finally got to put on his serious eye again...

… it would be a fun day indeed.

 **A/N: And that's a wrap for this one! Man, that took way longer than I wanted it too. I'm currently typing the last part of this chapter out the-day-of, so I'm sorry if this feels a little rushed. I just got back from a trip to Colorado, and I was pretty busy while I was there and barely had any time to write. I hope you enjoyed the chapter regardless! Also, before you guys start wondering, Richard Sharpe is not an OC. He's actually a fictional character from the historical fiction series that was named after him: Sharpe. It's actually pretty good, and I highly recommend it.**

 **And now:**

 **Review Responses:**

 **U-nohoo: Well... yeah, I honestly read it like that too sometimes. It's kinda weird.**

 **Thunder Dragon: Well, I hope this chapter made things a bit brighter for you guys!**

 **Kaiser Dragon: Indeed they have been! I just hope that this chapter was uplifting as opposed to... well, everyone suffering.**

 **Phoenix Wizard: Yeah. Sun'll be in a bit of a dark place for a while, but he can move past it. It'll just take time and effort.**

 **Uruk-Hai: Yeah, I did not go easy on him. He'll be alright, eventually.**

 **Also, thank you for reminding me. It was pretty hectic for a while, and I added an addendum to the main story idea, and it should be located near the bottom. Let me know if you wanted to add or change anything regarding that.**

 **Odin's Eye: In a way. You'll have to wait and see. And yeah, Sage is _super dead_** **. Sorry to anyone who liked him, but... well, that's how the dice fell.**

 **King Ceasar Jr: Yeah. They'll get through this, eventually.**

 **Madmagusmax: Well, it might not have made you laugh, I think this chapter was definitely more positive than the last one.**

 **DD Lore Nerd: Into this one! Hopefully, because if it didn't I'll have to go searching for a new supply...**

 **Gojifreak: Yep. I hope this one makes up for what happened last chapter.**

 **Mecha Manda: They shall. But not all of the White Fang are evil, some of them are just misguided. Some of them are trying to do the right thing, they're just going about it the wrong way. It happens more often than we like to admit. Example: the top brass are mostly fanatical (sans Sienna Khan, who at least has _some_ sense), but some of their grunts are pretty hesitant about exactly what they're doing. **

**Leviathan's Heir: Yep. I've never liked bullies either. But I can see why the White Fang ended up the way it is right now. Does that excuse their actions? Never. But it does give an explanation as to why they act the way they do. Also, that's actually a pretty good and poignant quote. Nice.**

 **Midgardsormr Jr: That it is.**

 **Black Fang: I do!**

 **Next Chapter: Aug. 9** **th**

 **Seeya in the next one!**


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